


Gemini Dream

by catboysam, Kahnah



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Angst, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Ghosts, Murder Mystery, Past Character Death, Suicide, king!au, royalty!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-10 15:06:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 51,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6990388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catboysam/pseuds/catboysam, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kahnah/pseuds/Kahnah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He had been perched on the frame of the bed but jumped off now to land with an elegant little bow. “Prince Gavin Ramsey. It's a pleasure to meet you, other me!”</p><p>--</p><p>They have been brought to a haunted castle that bears a terrible secret. To return home, they must free the ghosts by solving the mysteries behind each of their deaths.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p>Long time no see<br/>Short time for you and me</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gemini - Castor, The Mortal

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Ready for another round?  
> This time with the help of the amazing Rachel. She also worked behind the scenes of the Lamp Halo AU and is just absolutely amazing! She came up with the idea in the first place and I just sprinkled my angst over it!
> 
>  
> 
> For everyone who has NOT read the Royalty-verse:
> 
> You should have no problem following this story because me and Rachel made sure to explain most the mechanics and the world during this. Still, if you want to know more about the rules, demons and timelines be sure to read the Royalty-verse first.
> 
> Besides that this will of course contain spoilers for Rule The World.
> 
>  
> 
> For everyone who HAS read the Royalty-verse:
> 
> This timeline derails during the third chapter of Rule The World because this time Gavin and Ray did not decide to kill Ryan.
> 
> This version follows the path of what would have happened if Ryan had stayed King.

Gemini Dream

 

 

_Chapter 1_

**Gemini**

_Castor, The Mortal_

 

Ray’s first thought was that he needed a new mattress. His current one was hard and cold and...made of dirt? He opened his eyes and discovered there was no ceiling above him, just a foggy white sky.

“What the fuck?” Ray sat up, looking around rapidly to figure out where in the world he was. He was indeed lying on dirt, in a large courtyard littered with broken stones and surrounded by a wall. The wall closest to him, however, belonged to a tall building.

Now, Ray wasn’t one of those people who could exactly pinpoint the moment he had fallen asleep, but he was pretty sure he would remember falling asleep in front of a castle. He wasn’t even sure where the nearest castle was, not counting Disney World. There certainly weren’t any in Austin, let alone most of the rest of the United States. He reached for his phone in his back pocket to use the GPS, but found nothing. Panicking only slightly, he patted his jeans and looked around to see if he had dropped it nearby, but it was gone.

Rubbing his tense shoulder, he found the other parts of the area to be mostly in ruins, the walls old and overgrown by ivy.

It was cold out here, the strange fog letting no sunlight through, and Ray wrapped his arms tightly around himself. How the fuck did he end up here?

Looking around, his gaze lingered on one building not too far off. It was smaller, at least it seemed to be, but it was hard to tell because it’s roof was mostly caved in. The heavy wooden door shook in its frame and Ray’s breath hitched. He wasn’t sure if not being alone in this place was better than the alternative but right now it really seemed like it. He still hadn’t caught his breath, hadn’t wrapped his head around this situation and he wasn’t yet ready to deal with a change.

The door rattled again and he nearly jumped. Someone was on the other side. On the other side of this nearly destroyed building while he was standing in this abandoned courtyard with this creepy fog surrounding him.

What did he do to deserve this?

Was it the anime booby video game or the memes?

Should he hide? Hide somewhere and see who came out and then decide to show himself? Fuck, with his luck it was probably Pyramid Head or some shit like that.

Oh God, maybe he was in Silent Hill?

Then he might as well just lay down and get it over with.

Before he could decide, the door was thrown open and this time he jumped for real. It didn’t help when the door hit the wall, knocking out multiple stones that crashed down.

The figure stepping out coughed at the sudden dust, quickly moving away from the building as if they feared it would collapse on their heads. It was a reasonable fear as far as Ray was concerned, and in the harsh winter light he recognized the stranger.

“Jesus Christ…” mumbled Jack as he dusted himself off, watching the building in distrust.

“Jack!” Ray called out and began to run towards him. This was certainly not Pyramid Head, quite the opposite! Having any of the others here, having _Jack_ here was amazing and he stumbled over the uneven ground to get to him.

Jack turned towards him and stared at him in disbelieve before answering, “Ray!”

“Oh, I’m so fucking glad you’re here!” Ray told him as he came to a skipping halt in front of him. Reaching out, he laid a hand on the other’s arm just to make sure he was really here but Jack was warm and solid beneath his fingers. “I was scared I was alone here!”  
  
Jack smiled at him unsurely before looking around. It had to be the first time he really took the castle in and he frowned. “Where is here?” he asked, and Ray shrugged.

“I have no idea! I just woke up here as well. I have no idea what’s going on.”  
  
Jack nodded as his eyes snapped back to Ray. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”  
  
“I don’t think so. Just kinda freaked out about this,” Ray admitted. “What about you?”  
  
“About the same. Really glad that the roof didn’t collapse on my head.” Again his eyes traveled over the area, trying to take as much as possible in.

“Where are we?”

Ray also turned around to take the place in and shivered. “It’s massive,” he whispered, his voice fading into the quiet air. Which was also a thing. Why couldn’t he hear anything like birds singing or people nearby? There was Jack’s breathing behind him, his own heartbeat of course, but besides that?

Silence.

“There are no castles like this anywhere around,” Jack said slowly. “And we certainly didn’t head to one.”

“It looks really old.”  
  
“It has to be, but considering everything it’s not as much in ruins as it could be. This place was probably immense in its prime. Maybe a capital of some sort.”

“But what are _we_ doing here?”

“I don’t know.” Jack turned around himself, looking up the huge walls before shaking his head. “Come on. Let’s search for a way out. It can’t be safe to wander in these ruins.”

Ray nodded and was quick to follow the older man away from the castle. He was ready to leave this place for now but that wouldn’t answer any questions.

Someone had to bring them here, right? Someone had… what? Drugged them, drove them to this place and simply thrown them here? That didn’t seem very reasonable at all.

And if it was true, they certainly wouldn’t be able to leave just as easily.

Looking around, he searched for cameras. Maybe this was one of those strange, unfunny reality shows? Who knew, maybe he had signed some fucked up contract and forgot about it. Working at Achievement Hunter could do that to you.

He stumbled over some stones and Jack threw him a glance over his shoulder. “Be careful.”  
  
“Okay.” There were multiple ways leading out of the massive courtyard they were in, but most seemed to lead further towards the castle, so they followed the wide, cobblestone road and soon enough a huge wall appeared above the ruins.

“That should lead out of the actual castle,” Jack told him. “Either into the city, if that’s still intact, or hopefully to some kind of civilization.”  
“As long as we find like a road or something, I’m happy,” Ray admitted. “This place is creeping me out.”

Jack nodded slowly, his eyes wandering across the buildings they were passing, and Ray had to admit that it was somehow fascinating. To imagine that decades ago people had lived and worked there. Now all of that was in ruins, broken down and unrecognizable.

By the looks of it, this place had been beautiful once. A busy, living place.

All gone.

 

* * *

 

“Well now, that's strange, isn't it?” someone said, and Gavin opened his eyes.

Until now he had been asleep and had been pretty sure he was bloody alone, but apparently he wasn't. Strangely enough though, he wasn't scared.

The ceiling above him wasn't white like he was used to, and there were heavy beams holding the roof. There were fragile little carvings in the dark wood, leading to a massive chandelier in the middle. The candles on it weren't lit.

Someone sat next to him, curiously staring down at him and Gavin blinked, confused.

He wanted to ask what the other wanted in his room, but this obviously wasn't his room. He wanted to ask who the other was but that was also obvious.

“Didn't think I'd need two of me to solve this,” said the sitting Gavin good-naturedly. “But I guess that's just how it is.”

He sat up quickly, the warm covers slipping from his shoulders as if he had been tucked in. Opening his mouth, he stared at the familiar face and wasn't sure what to do. That was certainly him, but not quite.

The other him wasn't as tan as him, his form leaner, but the biggest difference was his clothes. He was cloaked in a bright green vest and trousers, the fabric fine and elegant. There was a scarf wrapped around his neck in the same green; it was thick, probably against the cold, and the other Gavin was playing absentmindedly with the end of it.

“Where is this?” Gavin blurted out, and the other chuckled.

“That's a strange first question.” But he looked around, as if to make sure himself. “We are in Geoff's room.”

“Geoff?” His thoughts trailed off as he noticed how the light caught on a silver crown on top of the other’s unruly hair. “Are you a king?”

He wasn't quite sure why this was the first thing he needed to know; after all it was far from being the most concerning thing about this whole situation, but it was possibly the most ridiculous one.

The other seemed to notice his gaze and snorted. “God, no.”

Reaching up, he pulled the crown from his hair. He appeared thoughtful as he watched the simple silver circlet with a single green stone in the front. “I'm a prince. Guess I should still introduce myself. Ryan would probably say I was rude, but this is a kind of special case, I'd say.”

He had been perched on the frame of the bed but jumped off now to land with an elegant little bow. “Prince Gavin Ramsey. It's a pleasure to meet you, other me!”

Okay, one moment. There were so many things wrong in those two sentences alone that Gavin couldn't even begin to wrap his head around it. The Prince threw him a mischievous smirk as if it was amusing to wake up to... to this right here!

“Okay, hold on for a second here,” he said while holding up his hands.

“I bet you have some questions.”

“You bloody think?” he snapped at the Prince and wondered if that was considered rude. If he really was royalty to begin with and... and if you could be rude to yourself or someone who is kind of yourself but also not and-

“What the bloody hell is going on here?” he settled on, and yeah, that would have been a good first question.

“Excellent question. Should have asked that first,” the Prince agreed, and okay, that would take some getting used to. “It's a bit hard to explain, I have to admit but let's just say we have a goal we must reach.”

“A goal?” Gavin asked. “What kind of goal?”

“We are playing detective!” the Prince told him as he clapped his hands. “We are here to solve a crime!”

“A crime,” Gavin echoed lamely. “Okay, sure. Why not?” He looked around the room, the tapestries on the walls, the candles instead of lights, and the clothes the Prince was wearing... he got a medieval vibe from it all.

Royalty and crowns – were they in a castle? If it wasn’t for his lookalike he would have wondered if he was back in Europe.

“So,” he went on, a bit unsurely. “What kind of crime are we talking about?”

“A murder! It's a murder mystery!” The prince had stopped clapping but his grin stayed. “I got killed and now we have to find my murderer!”

Gavin stared at him with raised eyebrows before asking, “What the heck are you talking about?”

“I just told you!” With a practiced motion the prince placed his crown back on his head. “I was murdered in this castle and now I want to find out who did it!”

“You're dead.”

“Yeah!” He seemed pretty amused by that, and with a smirk he added, “Boo! I guess I'm a ghost!”

“You don't seem very... ghost-like.”

“Yeah, I can't walk through walls. That's a downer.”

Gavin shook his head and slowly stood up. He didn't dare to let the Prince out of his sight because even though he didn't feel any danger from the other, he had just admitted that he was dead and a ghost and whatnot. Better safe than sorry.

So he walked around him before stepping to the one window in the room and instantly froze in place.

Just as he thought, he was in a castle. He had to be high up, in a tower or something because he could look down to see a big courtyard and different crumbling buildings surrounding it. They were connected through what must have once been roofed pathways, and reached towards an ivy-covered outer wall stretching around the whole thing as far as he could see. But beyond that was nothing.

A thick fog piled against that wall, stretching into the sky to form a dome above the castle itself. It was like a white veil, covering everything, and Gavin shook at the sight of it.

“What is this place?” he whispered.

“Our playing field.”

He turned around to the Prince who was watching him closely, a small smile on his lips.

“So let me get this straight,” Gavin said. “You got murdered and now you want to find who did it.”

“Exactly!”

“Then why am I here? What do I have to do with anything at all?”

“That's actually a very good question.” The prince sat down on the bed and crossed his legs. “I wished to be able to solve my death, and you appeared here with me. Part of the deal was that I get every tool I need to solve this, so I guess I need you for it.”

“You made a deal? Like, with a genie or something?”

“What's a genie?” asked the Prince, but before Gavin could answer, he shook his head. “I made a deal with a demon, of course.”

“A demon.”

“Yeah, I woke up in the Nether and made a deal,” he explained as if that was the most normal thing in the world. “It said something about twisting dimensions but I didn't really think it would bring another me here.” He laid his chin in his hands to watch Gavin. “So I am guessing that multiverse is a thing. Not too surprising after the Nether, I guess.”

Wish granting demons? Different dimensions?

“What the hell?” blurted Gavin out. “That doesn't make any sense at all! Things like that don’t exist!”

“You don't have those? How lame.” But the Prince was grinning and took pity on him. “Guess that's quite a lot to take in. If you die here, rumor has it you will wake up in a place infested with demons. If you manage to survive and find the portal out again, you are granted a second chance.”

“Sounds like hell.”

“It's close enough, yeah.”

“And those demons... grant wishes?”

“They make deals, allowing you great powers or wishes, as you put them, but it all comes with a price.”

“What do you have to pay?”

“Let that be my concern.” The Prince waved him off, and Gavin threw him a disbelieving look but didn't get anything else out of him. Throwing a look back out the window, he shivered at the endless white outside and turned his back to it.

Folding his arms over his chest, he looked down at the Prince who watched him as well.

“I’m guessing I can't go back until we find the culprit?”

“None of us can leave until then, yeah,” the Prince agreed.

“And we have all the things we need to solve it?”

“Yeah, that was part of the deal. We are provided with each hint and tool we need.”

“Okay,” Gavin mumbled. “I'm still pretty sure I am going to wake up any second now, but fine. Let's find your damn murderer, I guess.”

“Sweet!” The Prince jumped to his feet. “Where should we start?”

“How am I supposed to know? You certainly know the place better than me.” Gavin shrugged. “What was the last thing you remember? Did you perhaps follow someone shady into an abandoned room or something? That would help.”

“Can't say that I did. But I know that I was in the throne room, so let's go there!”

“Sure. Why not? I don't really have much of a choice.”

 

Gavin followed the Prince through miles and miles of corridors. And each corridor appeared to lead to ten more corridors and he was pretty sure he could get lost in here, but the other man’s steps were sure and fast as he guided them through the castle.

The castle was also something eerie. The white dome outside drenched everything in a dull light, not quite unlike an early winter day, and it was also fittingly cold. When they moved past the outer walls of the castle, he could actually see his breath form in front of him and wrapped his arms around himself. He couldn't see the breath of the Prince though, and for now he decided not to think about it. After all, apparently the other was dead.

Or had he himself gotten a quite strong hit on the head, maybe had a stroke?

Throwing a glance at the Prince, he wondered why the other apparently didn't seem to mind that someone had allegedly killed him; he seemed rather excited about it.

There were too many strange things going on here to keep up with, and for now he had decided to just play along and just wake up at some point. Soon, hopefully, because this was fucking him up.

If this really was a dream, why could he hear the other hum? Why could he feel this coldness and the stones beneath his feet?

It was all too realistic!

He had to have really banged his head quite hard.

“You called yourself Gavin Ramsey before,” he said after a while of mindless following, and the Prince threw him a quick glance over his shoulder.

“What about it?”

“Ramsey is Geoff's surname, not yours.”

That made the Prince stop and turn towards him. “You also have a Geoff?”

“He's my boss.” And as he found the confused look on the other’s face, he added, “I work for him. You guys might have demons and crap like that, but we have video games – much better if you ask me.”

The Prince smiled unsurely, obviously not quite understanding what was really going on here, but he settled on, “So, Geoff is not your father?”

“My father? No.”

“He adopted me years ago, made me his heir and gave me his name,” the Prince told him.

“I guess he is the King of this country?”

“He is the Allfather, the true ruler of this land.” The Prince fell silent, a thoughtful expression on his face as he also looked outside. Gavin wondered for the first time if the other saw what he saw, but then the other's expression lit up. “Do you also have a Jack? Jack Pattillo?”

“Yeah! You too?”

“He's Geoff's advisor and counselor! He helped raise me! Oh!” And now the Prince was excited and it was contagious. “What about Michael and Ray? You surely know those two, right?”

“Of course I do! That's amazing! So they all lived in this castle with you?”

The Prince nodded. “Ray is a knight, fast on his feet and deadly in what he does. He protects me and Geoff.”

Now that didn't sound like Ray at all.

“Michael is one of our finest warriors! Big mouth, but he's been there since my childhood!”

That fit a bit more, but Gavin noticed the shadow passing over the Prince's face and figured that wasn't all there was. That something had happened to Michael, and he didn't quite dare to ask.

Instead he settled on the name that's been missing. “What about Ryan?”

And that was the wrong question. The Prince pressed his lips together and there was something cold in his eyes.

“Let’s keep moving.” With that, he continued down the hall, Gavin hesitating before following after him again.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen to him? Was he not your friend?”

The Prince sneered at the suggestion, keeping his pace. “That man was the farthest thing from a friend. He was a vagabond, a tyrant, and the man who killed my father.”

Gavin was the one to stop this time, the Prince pausing beside him. “What?! Your- he killed Geoff? Geoff is d-dead?”

The Prince smiled, causing a swell of unease to build in Gavin’s stomach. “No. My father is alive. He returned to me.”

 

* * *

 

Michael was going to punch whoever thought it was funny to take him out of his bed and put him on the floor. And whoever let a small, furry animal into his house, judging by the ball of warmth curled up on his chest. Those thoughts immediately left him as he opened his eyes to see a noose swinging above his head.

He yelped and jumped up, inadvertently throwing the furry creature off of him, causing it to yowl unhappily. He scuttled back and away from the noose, his heart beating rapidly as he looked around, bewildered.

“What the fuck…? Where the fuck am I?”

Michael stood up and looked back at the noose. He was standing on a set of gallows in the middle of a large empty courtyard, and he didn’t know why.

A loud meow startled him, and he looked down to see the creature sitting at his feet, purring. It was a bit larger than a cat, and almost looked like one, if cats had creepy red eyes. It meowed again and began rubbing up against his legs, purring louder.

The gallows creaked in the soft wind, and Michael shivered because of more reasons than the cold. He let his eyes travel and found a castle in the distance, old and mostly in ruins.

“What the fuck is going on here…” he mumbled to himself and only the cat answered, blinking up to him with its red eyes. It didn’t seem aggressive, and carefully Michael crouched down to pet it. It purred like a little engine, butting against his hand and legs, and he smiled.

Okay, creepy yes, but better than being alone out here. Its fur was thick and of a reddish color, certainly keeping it warm as he stroked through it.

“Hey there, Triella,” he said, and didn’t even wonder how he knew her name. It was in the back of his head as if she had told him, but she only answered with a soft meow. Before he could ponder over that some more, he saw something move. It took him a moment to understand that it was the shadow of the gallows, only that it wasn’t right. The noose was swaying slowly, but now there was a body hanging there, feet not touching the ground.

Michael jumped up and turned around even though he certainly wasn’t ready to see a corpse but there was nothing there. The noose was swinging in front of his face, empty and rotten with age. Still it sent shivers down his spine and before he could think any more about it, he jumped off the gallows, something he should have done way before.

Landing on the broken stones of the courtyard, he quickly turned back around. Right now he didn’t dare to let the noose out of his eyesight because what if whatever hung there a second ago came back?

Came back and reached out with their dead hands?

He could nearly feel their cold touch on his skin and felt goosebumps break out over his body.

What was this place?

He screamed embarrassingly high as Triella jumped at him, landing on his shoulder as if she had done that a million times already to curl around his neck like a scarf. Her head nuzzled against his cheek and she radiated a welcome warmth.

“Jesus Christ, princess…” he mumbled but reached up to rub behind her ears. The purring was calming, certainly a more pleasant noise than his wildly beating heart.

Maybe it had been just a trick of his mind? Too many horror movies, too many stupid video games he had to play with Gavin. His head had probably expected that to happen and so he had seen it.

Yeah. Yeah, that was a way better explanation than to think this was a haunted place or some shit like that.

Walking backwards, he dared to look around a bit more. The castle was to his left and to his right was a high wall that seemed to go around this whole thing. The strange fog was right behind it and it looked like it was pushing against glass or a barrier.

If he looked close enough, he was sure he could make out figures in the white and he quickly looked back towards the gallows. Nothing there, and by now the noose had even stopped swinging idly.

Maybe he had brushed against it. That had to be it, he was just nervous from waking up in the middle of nowhere.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said quietly and Triella meowed her answer.

 

* * *

 

The steps of the Prince became faster the further they went as if he was excited, and Gavin had to hurry up to not lose him. He was ready to ask if they were close when they turned a corner to another long hallway, but here he could see heavy wooden doors at the end. They were massive, dark wood with engraved letters and pictures that probably told some kind of story, but Gavin couldn’t really get a good look at them before the Prince threw the doors open, not minding the beautiful decorations.

And sure enough, behind the doors was the actual throne room.

The huge windows let in the washed out light of the fog and so the rich emerald of the carpet seemed more like a pale green as it lead to the two steps up to the throne.

On one of those steps sat Ryan, with Geoff leaning over him, probably talking to him, but they both looked up at the sudden intrusion.

“Geoff!” the Prince cried out before Gavin could even catch his breath. He was a few feet behind him and entered the throne room a bit belatedly but was in time to see how the Prince ran up to Geoff and threw his arms around his middle. The impact made Geoff stumble back until he hit the throne before he could steady himself.

And for a second… for a second Gavin could have sworn he hadn’t seen his boss. Hadn’t seen the black shirt and jeans but an emerald cloak, a golden crown on top of his head. It was gone in the blink of an eye, even before Geoff could reach out to the younger.

“Gav? Are you okay?” he asked, and it echoed in the nearly empty room just as Gavin’s steps did. Again Geoff looked up and as the blue eyes found him, he frowned. “What the fuck…”  
Ryan even jumped to his feet, looking from one to the other before reaching up to touch his forehead. “I didn’t hit my head this hard, did I?”

Gavin gave a tired little laugh that quickly faded as he watched the Prince throw Ryan a poisonous glare. Geoff also seemed to notice, and gently pried him from his body to observe him better. His gaze switched from one to the other, obviously checking on their resemblances before he mumbled, “What is going on here...?”

“Until now, I thought this was just a strange dream,” Gavin admitted. “Figured I’d have woken up by now.”

They were still kind of staring at him, and he figured he was going to be the one to explain what was going on here, even though he wasn’t even good at that when he actually knew what was happening, and now he just shrugged a bit helplessly.

“May I introduce you to… well, me?”

  
  



	2. Horologium - The Clock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “He came back from the Nether. He came back to take his throne from you, to stop your reign. And he did.”

_Chapter 2_

**Horologium**

_The Clock_

 

“I don’t remember how I died, just that someone killed me. And that’s when I made the deal to find out who.”

“So you’re the ghost of Gavin from another timeline where we’re royalty and shit, someone killed you, and now we have to find out who did it?” Geoff asked incredulously, arms crossed.

“That’s right!” chirped the Prince, who had hovered near the older man during the explanation.

Geoff sighed and looked up at the stained glass window behind the throne. “I hope king me liked drinking as much as I do. If this is real and we’re doing this I’m gonna need booze.”

Ryan had moved from the floor to one of the chairs while the others were talking, and now he sat in shock, eyes glued to the table and hands clenched. “I...killed Geoff? How could I…?”

The Prince opened his mouth to say something, but frowned when he was interrupted by Geoff. “It wasn’t you, Ryan. Just some fucked up other-world version of you. Honestly, I figured if it was gonna happen it would be in some kinda weird situation like this.”

Ryan gave him an unsure smile, but the Prince was still glaring at him, and Gavin debated if he should reach out to get his attention. Instead he simply repeated, “It wasn’t him, you know that, right?”

“He caused enough pain for two lifetimes,” the Prince said sharply, but slowly averted his eyes. “But I guess you are right.”

Gavin threw a quick look to Geoff, who nodded. “Okay, how about you two never ever go somewhere alone. Wouldn’t want any accidents to happen, alright?”

“What a shame…” the Prince mumbled, but thankfully let the topic drop. “So where do we start?”

Geoff thought about it for a while before giving an apologetic shrug to Ryan. “Sorry if I jump to this right away but… if your Ryan was really such an asshole, maybe it was him?”

Ryan grimaced at that but didn’t try to talk back, so Geoff went on. “I mean, he somehow had the guts to go against me! And you two didn’t seem to be the best of friends.”

“Oh, I would have been faster than him,” the Prince spat. “It’s only thanks to Ray anyway that he lived that long. But no, I still remember how his head rolled over the ground here.” He was smirking now, eyes locked with Ryan’s. “He placed his crown on the throne and kneeled down, just waiting for the sword.”

“Bloody hell…” Gavin whispered and couldn’t help but shake himself. “That’s grim. This whole thing... “

“Who was it?” Ryan asked, and they all looked up, a bit surprised. He had been mostly quiet, which was no surprise due to the obvious hostility towards him. “Who killed me?”

“Geoff of course.” And the smirk turned into a triumphant grin. “He came back from the Nether. He came back to take _his_ throne from you, to stop your reign. And he did.” His eyes wandered to Geoff, growing softer. “He took your head and then took your crown. He walked through hell to return to us, to right the wrong.” He raised his chin, looking down at the blond man. “And he didn’t even contract a demon for that. No, he was the only known man to return with his own strength! He’s the Allfather!”

The words ended in a heavy silence as they tried to work through that.

“Finally someone who realizes how amazing I am,” Geoff mumbled to lighten the mood a little, and the Prince threw him a bright smile, soaking up the praise.

“So okay, it wasn’t big old scary Ryan. Being dead is a nice enough alibi,” Geoff went on. “Also I was just as great back then as I am now. Doesn’t really help the matter but it’s nice to confirm.”  
“You said Ray was the reason that Ryan was even alive,” Gavin pointed out. “What does that mean?”

The Prince huffed. “I wanted Ray to kill him, but he refused. Even when the bastard let Michael go to war, he didn’t want to do it! Said that Ryan wasn’t as bad as I made him out to be.”  
“Then why didn’t you kill him yourself, if you wanted him dead that badly?”

The Prince hesitated before shaking his head. “That doesn’t matter now, does it? None of this helps us. It couldn’t have been Ryan but that’s not what this is about.”

“He’s right.” Ryan stood up from his chair and instantly the Prince glared at him in distrust. “But you said that we got every tool and hint we need to solve this, right?”  
  
“Yeah, that’s part of the deal.”  
  
“I bet there’s some kind of report over the incident. After all you were the Prince of this kingdom. I’m sure Geoff investigated the case, tried to find the culprit.”  
  
“The archive…” said the Prince thoughtfully before nodding to himself. “That could be, yeah! They would want to find out who did it, Geoff and Jack would do anything to find out! I’m sure of it!”

“There we go,” Geoff said. “That’s a better start than standing here discussing it without more information.” Turning towards the Prince, he asked, “Can you show us the way to the archive?”

“Of course!”

 

* * *

 

Michael followed an old road away from the gallows and towards the outer wall. He had to carefully watch where he placed his feet because of the broken and missing stones, and through it all he couldn't help himself but to throw glances over his back. Somehow he expected a second shadow to join him again, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted that one to be also hanging or just standing there. Both were horrifying in their own way, but at least Triella helped.

The cat started to purr the moment he got uneasy as if she was trying to calm him down. More than once he pet through her fur as a silent thank you.

The road led to a courtyard and behind that he could already see a gate in the outer wall. With some luck he could get out of here through that.

Before that, though, he had to climb over a collapsed archway and he was just pulling himself up to that with a grunt when he heard other voices.

He shushed Triella, who immediately listened as he peeked over the stones.

For the longest time he couldn't see anyone, but the voices came closer, echoing through the emptiness here, and maybe he already recognized them but he didn’t quite dare to trust his own judgement. Only when he saw Jack turn a corner did he take a breath and close his eyes for a second.

“Thank God,” he whispered and let his head rest against the stone. Good… that was good.

Triella jumped from his shoulders up to the top of the stones and he could feel how she tore at his sleeve, urging him to move on. Looking up again, he saw her needlelike teeth and still didn’t fear her. By now he had no reason to do so.

“Okay, princess. I’m coming.” Pushing off the debris, he pulled himself on top, and from here he could not only see Jack but also Ray. He couldn’t help but grin at that.

For a moment he wanted to call for them, but his voice would be too loud for this place, would maybe lure other things closer and right now he didn’t want that. So he simply dropped down on the other side and followed Triella’s fluffy tail as she showed him the way.

Soon enough the other two noticed his steps and he waved at them. It was like a secret sign because Triella began to run at them and jumped around Ray’s feet, trying to get his attention. Ray threw one look at her before trying to hide behind Jack. “Um… this cat kinda has really creepy eyes.”

Michael was now close enough to huff amusedly and let Jack look him over to assure him that he was okay.

“Really glad to find you guys here,” he said, and didn’t even bother to hide how relieved he was. Just a bit more and he would throw his arms around both of them, to make sure they were real.

“Good to see that you’re alright,” Jack agreed before throwing a look back towards the castle. “Even though I’m beginning to think that if you’re also here, the others might be as well.”

“What is this place?” Michael asked.

“I have no idea,” Jack admitted before turning around as Ray desperately pulled at his sleeve.

“Help?” he whined as Triella tried to climb his leg, her tail twitching happily.

“Triella,” Michael called and crouched down. “Come on, leave Ray alone, okay?”

The cat listened, coming straight to him to get her head rubbed.

“Triella?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, I woke up and she was with me. But she’s tame and listens to me,” Michael explained.

“How do you know her name?”

And that was a really good question, wasn’t it?

Picking the cat up, he let her climb on his shoulder before answering, “I can’t tell you. That’s weird, right?”

“Not the weirdest thing that has happened today,” Jack told him, and he guessed that was true.

“I really don’t like it here,” said Ray, eyeing Triella warily. “Are you sure… the cat won’t hurt us?”

“She’s fine, dude,” Michael assured him, but when he tried to step closer and touch him, Ray shrunk further behind Jack. Well, fair enough.

He turned towards Jack. “Were you guys searching for a way out?”  
Jack nodded. “Yeah, to get an overview of where we actually are and all that. But if the others are really somewhere here we might have to look after them first.”

“I bet they also want to get out,” Ray offered and peeked out of his hiding. “Wouldn’t they also head to the big gate then?”

Michael was pretty sure the other just didn’t want to get any closer or even inside the castle, but he wasn’t wrong. “If we’re already here we might as well check the gate out. Who knows, maybe we’ll find someone there.”

“Okay, it’s not that much further anyway.”

They went on, watching their steps as Jack asked, “Do you guys remember what happened before we woke up here?”

“Not really,” Michael said, and between them Ray shook with his head. “Last I remember was lunch but it feels like that has been hours away. After that it’s kinda blurry.”

“Yeah…” Throwing a look towards the castle, Jack sighed. “This is all very strange. It’s like we’re not even in Texas anymore. Something here is absolutely wrong.”

“That’s why we need to get out of here,” Ray threw in, and Michael noticed that he kept throwing glances over his shoulders, and now he couldn’t help himself but do the same. He remembered the strange hanging shadow from before and shivered. Yeah, that would be perfect. Not only a creepy place but fucking haunted as well.

For now it was probably better to keep that to himself; no need to make Ray more nervous than he already was.

“I don’t have my phone with me,” Ray said while checking his pockets again. “Any of you?”

They both searched and came up with nothing but if Michael was honest, he also hadn’t expected them to find one. And even if, he doubted they had any signal here.

It didn’t help Ray’s mood at all, and he watched as the other took a long, shaky breath before moving on. He reached out, touched his arm briefly, and Ray threw him a small smile. His eyes quickly went to his shoulders where Triella’s weight rested and he took a step away.

“Looks like it’s up there,” Jack said before Michael could open his mouth, and sure enough, the huge gate was just around the corner. They moved a bit faster, walking down the road towards it and then stood there, staring at the huge stone archway.

They were alone, none of the others waited for them here but that wasn’t everything.

“Well…” Jack mumbled slowly. “I guess the good news is that the gate isn’t locked.”

That much was true, Michael could see a fitting metal gate to lock the entrance, but it was wide open as if the castle had expected a crowd in its dead empire, instead of a handful of lost souls.

It didn’t need a gate to keep them in, though, because beyond the archway was only white fog. Not even a silhouette of any kind, the road they had followed simply… disappeared. Michael stepped a bit closer, hoping to at least see the first two steps of it, but nothing.

The fog rolled towards them, only held back by some kind of… of _force_ _._ Like glass.

Michael stepped closer, wanted to touch it, but felt how Triella shifted away from it. He hesitated, throwing a short glance towards Jack and Ray before turning back around. Reaching out, he touched the fog and wasn’t quite sure what he expected. Would it burn him like acid? Kind of like in Catching Fire? Or even better, some crazy shit like in The Mist?

Okay, maybe not the best of times to think about Stephen King.

Thankfully it was neither. The fog was… well, clammy. Cold and clammy and besides that nothing much. Just fog.

“What do you think is beyond that?” Ray asked quietly. “Do you think we can step through?”

“I’m not sure. It seems like… like normal fog, I guess?”

“That’s very strange behavior for fog,” said Jack and Michael shrugged. That was true, there was no barrier of any kind which stopped the fog from rolling in here and around their feet, and still it stayed neatly right outside the archway.

“I’ll take a look,” he heard himself say and figured that now he was committed. More or less.

“Be carefu-” Jack’s voice got cut out the moment he took a step into the fog and Michael turned back around. Behind him was the archway, but the fog had already closed him in.

“Fuck…” he whispered before looking around. Besides the gate, he couldn’t see anything else, just whiteness like before but beneath him was a stony road. Could they just follow that out of here? It seemed dangerous, easy to get lost in here, because with the next step he would probably lose sight of the archway. But the fog had to end somewhere, right?

Crouching down, he touched the stones and felt around for the edge. He wanted to know how wide the road was, if there was any danger besides it, when Triella yowled into his ear. It was low, miserable and he was about to reach out to pat her head when a crack went through the stone he was touching.

He watched in fascination as the stone started to disappear. It turned into little particles and it wasn’t the stone alone anymore. It was the road, and Michael stood quickly again, watched as the particles floated up. They were white, glowing like little stars or snow. Snow that was falling upwards, and the road beneath his feet disappeared. The stars filled the air around him and as he looked up the archway was also disappearing, vanishing from the bottom to the top and all he could do was watch as the snow fell and fell in the wrong direction, leaving him in the middle of a white nowhere.

Breathing heavily, he stood there, and suddenly he wasn’t even sure where he came from anymore. Everything around looked the fucking same, and as the stars slowly vanished around him, it was just a simple foggy landscape and he knew that he couldn’t be more than one or two steps away from the other two but there was no way to know in which direction they were.

Triella yowled lowly again and he wasn’t sure what to answer her, she had tried to warn him about it, he was pretty sure about that and no-

Something grasped his arm and he cried out. He wanted to punch whoever it was, all those damn horror movies coming back into his mind, but then he was already jerked forward. Stumbling, he collided with someone.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked him, and as Michael looked around he saw he was back in the courtyard.

Ray stared at him, frowning a little at his expression, and Michael turned back to Jack who was still holding on to him. Which was maybe for the best because his knees felt a bit weak.

“Michael?”  
  
“I…” he began but wasn’t sure what he should say. Turning around, he watched the wall of fog and shivered.

“You were just standing there,” Ray said quietly. “Just standing right there and looking around. It was weird.”

“It most certainly was weird,” he mumbled before stepping away from the fog, shaking Jack’s hand off. “We can’t go through there.”  
“What happened, Michael?”  
  
“We can’t go through there,” he simply repeated, because he wasn’t sure what to tell them. He wasn’t even sure what the fuck had just happened! He just knew that he didn’t want to get close to that damn fog again.

“Are you sure?” Jack asked and he nodded wildly.

“I am very sure.”

“Then what now?” Ray asked softly. He stepped ahead, taking a tight hold on Michael’s arm. Maybe to calm himself down or to steady him, Michael most certainly didn’t mind.

Jack simply turned around and as they followed his gaze, they found the castle. “It seems like there is really only one way to go.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” Ray mumbled. “Like, I don’t know what is happening or who is doing it but maybe we should not do what they expect us to do? What if it’s a trap?”

“It’s not like we have much of a choice. Let’s just stay together and everyone be careful,” Jack said. “With some luck we will find the others on the way.”

They moved back towards the castle, stepping and climbing over debris and at some point Triella hopped down from his shoulders to lead the way. It was a different path than Ray and Jack had taken before, down narrow alleys, between old, mossy houses, but certainly easier to navigate.

“The castle looks strange,” Ray said after a while of quiet walking.

“You think?” Michael snapped back but the other just grimaced at him. He was still keeping close, throwing glances over his shoulder.

“I’m just saying. All those houses are like one hit away from collapsing, but the castle looks alright.”  
“Probably because it’s so massive or some shit like that.”

“No, Ray is right,” Jack threw in. He was bringing up the rear and Michael turned towards him. “If you look closely you can still see some kind of banner hanging from the castle walls, I saw when Ray and I were closer to it. That should have been long rotted away but it wasn’t.”

“So what does that mean?”  
  
“I don’t know.”

Frowning, Michael turned back around to follow Triella and could see how Ray shook himself next to him. He could relate to that, just another fucked up fact about this fucked up place.

Triella’s ears perked up and she turned her head, watching a wall. They all stopped in their tracks, staring at the very same wall as if they expected something to jump at them but there was… nothing.

Still, the cat was standing still, one paw slightly raised for the next step before carefully lowering it. Then she started to purr, loud enough for them all to hear and Michael nearly leaped out of his skin when Ray’s hand clamped around his arm.

“What is she doing?” he whispered as he pressed himself against his side. “It’s like… like she’s seeing someone!”

Michael simply shook his head and took another look to make absolutely sure they were alone. But there was nothing, just a gray, brittle wall.

“Triella?” he called carefully and the cat turned towards him, giving him a meow as an answer. And with that she simply moved on.

They threw each other glances and after a while, Michael also walked on.

Ray wasn’t the only one who threw glances over his shoulder now and then anymore.

 

Triella lead them to a big open place right in front of the castle, not far away from where Ray and Jack had woken up. A huge, highly decorated door was blocking the entrance, painted in a lively green and plated with gold.

Jack was the first to touch it, his hand wandering over the metal latches and the strong wood before he shook his head slowly. “Look at that. The paint isn’t fading, it’s not even cracked.”

“Is someone taking care of this place? There are people who are restoring old castles, right?” Ray asked and also stepped closer, touching the door and the frame as well.

“If so they are doing a tremendous job of it,” Jack admitted, but he didn’t sound like he believed it at all. Michael didn’t either.

“It’s rather like it’s from a different time,” he said. “Like it suddenly got stuck in a moment while everything else fell to pieces.”

Jack hummed thoughtfully before taking a hold of the huge handles and pulled.

The wood creaked but didn’t budge in the slightest, even when all three of them pulled. Triella wasn’t much help either, happily jumping around their legs as if to cheer them on as they struggled.

“Is it locked?” Ray gasped as he let go and took a step back to take the whole thing in. “I don’t see a keyhole but in movies they have those big beams to lock shit up.”

“That could be.” Jack also let go. “This is useless, it’s not moving.”

“You think there’s another way in?” Michael asked. “I mean, there have to be two dozens right? And I am pretty sure this is where we are suppose to go.”

“I guess we have to look around. It’s not like we have something e-” Jack trailed off and Michael turned towards him before following his eyes. He was staring at a bird that had nestled on one of the walkways leading around the castle.

It was small, not bigger than a sparrow, but something was off about its feathers. It was too far away for Michael to really tell what it was, but now he also couldn’t look away because besides them and Triella… this was apparently the only living thing there was in this place.

In the next second it spread its wings and flew off, leaving them alone again.

“Um…” Ray made quietly. “Should we… follow it?”

Jack shrugged but Michael looked down towards Triella. The cat hadn’t shown any signs of aggression, and now she was just neatly sitting by his feet, cleaning her paws.

“We might as well.”

They couldn’t see the bird anymore, but they followed something that could have been sparks or tiny fireflies. They never got close enough to make sure before they vanished in the cold air. The path here had a stone roof to protect them from the weather and the ceiling had been painted carefully, vines and flowers blooming above them, and Michael kept looking up. Ray simply held on to his arm and didn’t even bother looking where he was going anymore, his eyes following the paintings. They didn’t really need to anyway anymore because here laid no debris, no traces of decay anywhere, and Michael could even make out torches along the wall and small hooks for lanterns to light them the way.

“It’s a beautiful place,” Jack said quietly.

“You mean besides all that creepy shit going on?”

“Yeah. Wherever this is had to have been a big, flourishing kingdom. Imagine this place brimming with life.”

“It’s huge,” Ray agreed. He had still tilted his head back. “I think we are heading to the garden.”  
“What makes you say that? Because of the flowers and shit?”

“No… Just because.” He shrugged and looked back towards Michael, but before he could react, he heard something. For a moment he could have pretended that it had been his imagination, but Jack stopped as well to look around.

It sounded like scratching, or rather like carving, and they turned, trying to find the source of it. In the end it was Ray who gasped and pointed up. And sure enough, through the vines and flowers above them appeared a crack, a straight line going through the colors and they could watch it grow.

Michael jumped as Triella next to him suddenly started purring just like she had done before in the alleyway, and he wondered why.

“It’s an old place…” Jack offered carefully. “Things like that can happen.”  
“Like right above us?” Michael asked, frowning at him. “After everything here seemed totally intact all the time? Some fucking timing that is.”

Jack simply shrugged and Michael figured he hadn’t an explanation himself.

“It looks like someone is trying to spell something,” Ray said quietly.

“Jesus Christ, Ray!” Michael snapped at him because holy shit, no. Holy shit, he did not sign up for any words getting carved above their heads by some kind of… of ghost! But now that he did look up, he couldn’t help but agree. The first crack had stopped forming a straight line and now a second appeared, starting to form a circle and holy shit, that could be a P. That really looked like a P, alright but the-

“It’s an R,” Ray whined. “Oh my God, that’s an R. Is it trying to spell my name? Is i-”  
  
“It’s not an R,” Jack said, but didn’t sound convincing because that surely was an R and next to it a second letter started and okay, okay that might just become an A.

“It’s spelling my name! Oh god, why is it doing that?” Ray’s voice was high in panic. His hand was grasping harshly at Michael’s arm, his fingertips bruising his skin, but Michael couldn’t move, couldn’t even find it in him to assure him in anyway because Ray was _right ._

Someone was scratching his name in the stone above him.

It was Jack who shook himself first and managed to avert his eyes. He stepped forward to grab Ray and the younger shouted in surprise, eyes huge as if it was the devil himself grasping him, but when Jack pulled him to go on, he did.

“It’s not your name,” Jack said.

“It is. It is, oh no, something is doing that,” Ray rambled on.

“It was not your name,” Jack repeated. “I bet it was just… a coincidence.”  
  
“A coincidence?” Michael asked in disbelief. “What do you mean with that? How was that a coincidence?”  
  
“Michael,” Jack said sharply, and he figured he really wasn’t helping here.

Ray was clinging to him, his bruising grip actually so tight that he could feel his fingers starting to tingle, and Ray’s breaths were coming harshly. Shallow, quick little gasps.

Taking a reassuring breath himself, he said, “Maybe… Maybe the cracks were already beneath the paint and… and you know, because this place is creepy that totally happened right now.”  
  
“Yeah,” Jack quickly agreed and both of them were dragging Ray on now, away from that place.

“That’s not what happened,” Ray mumbled. “That’s not how… how things like that work. Why was my name there?”  
  
“It wasn’t your name,” Jack said again. “Okay, it did look like letters, I’ll give you that, but even if something was writing - how many things start with RA?”

“What? You think someone was writing _rainbow_ on the fucking ceiling?” Ray snapped at him.

“Ramsey,” Michael threw in. “Could have also been Ramsey, you know?

That made Ray turn around and stare at him and slowly, slowly he nodded. “I guess…”  
“Let’s just get away from there, okay? Let’s go to that garden.”

“Yeah… yeah, that sounds good.”

Michael threw a look behind him just to make sure that nobody was following them and found Triella still sitting there. She was staring against the wall like she could see something he could not, purring the whole time.

He called her and she looked up briefly before turning back around, and it was like she was asking for permission to join them. And apparently she got it, because she got up and quickly caught up with them.

Ray remained correct, because soon enough the pathway opened up to a gate and beyond it was the biggest garden Michael had ever seen. It was _huge_ _,_ a little stone path leading them inside, and that was good because the whole thing was overgrown in a neatly manner. Bushes and flowers on what seemed to be every available space, and then came the roses.

Dozen bushes of different colored ones, bright and healthy. Rows upon rows of them, obviously well taken care of.

Michael wanted to touch them, to smell them, but he stopped dead along with the other two when he saw a figure kneeling in front of them.

From here he couldn’t really make the stranger out because their head was lowered as if they were checking on the roots of the roses. He was wearing a bright red cloak, long enough to fan out on the ground, and for now it was the most colorful thing he had found in this place. Even the roses seemed washed out by the winter light around them, but the coat was nearly obnoxiously bright.

Triella darted ahead, passing Jack to greet the stranger in excitement, but if they noticed her, they didn’t show it.

“Hello?” Jack called carefully, and Ray next to Michael flinched at the sudden noise.

The stranger actually moved and slowly sat up. It was a young man and he was wiping his hands clean on his pants before standing.

He looked a little sick, like he hadn’t gotten a healthy meal inside of him for quite some time, but even like that Michael recognized the short dark hair, the shape of his face as he turned halfway towards him. He recognized how Triella greeted him the same way that she had Ray.

“Ray…” he breathed out and even though there was no way for the other to hear him, it seemed to reach somehow.

The other Ray looked around as if he was searching for something, his cloak shifting to reveal a slender sword, a rapier maybe, and then he spoke. It wasn’t audible, he barely moved his lips, but Michael knew it was his name.

Then the other flickered out of existence.

They continued to stand there, frozen in shock or something and Michael couldn’t even hear Ray next to him breathe anymore. He was pretty sure the other had held his breath, not able to let it go now, and he could understand that. Fucking Christ, he could understand this too well.

Triella was still fixating something in the spot where the other Ray had vanished, and he was pretty sure she could still see him. Her ears were lowered, like she felt sad that she had been ignored. Something about that freed Michael and he turned around, needed to check on Ray, but was surprised to find that Ray wasn’t even looking.

It seemed he had turned away the moment he had recognized himself, and now he was staring up. Michael followed his gaze and already knew what he would find.

The path they were following through the garden was roofed at some points for shelter in the rain or to get some shade if the sun was bright and unforgiving. They were beneath one of those parts, and it wasn’t as decorated as the one leading here. There was really just a single lantern hanging there, so they could see even better how Ray’s name was carved into the stone ceiling. Over and over again, the letters getting messier the more there were as if whoever had scratched them into the stone had been desperate to get noticed.

“Oh my God…” Michael whispered. He didn’t even know what to say to that because he couldn't deny this. He couldn't pretend it wasn’t Ray’s name anymore.

“What do you want from me?” Ray whimpered. His eyes were huge, his face pale. Michael reached out to take his hand, holding tightly as he felt the other shiver.

“What did I do to you?”

Michael wasn’t sure if he even wanted an answer to that, but he surely got one. A new word was being carved in the stone, he could trace the lines with his eyes.

I, N, N, O-

_Innocent?_

“Guys,” Jack called next to them, and it sounded so urgent that Michael was able to ignore the writings on the ceiling and turn towards him. He was watching the back of the garden and for a second Michael was sure that the other Ray would appear again, but all he could see were dead flowers. That seemed strange, the garden was well kept, but as he watched it spread like a disease.

He saw the flowers withering one by one, leading towards the castle, and it looked like everything was happening in a fast motion, as if days and weeks and months were passing, and in just a second this castle would look like the buildings outside.

“What is happening here?” he mumbled without really expecting an answer.

“Oh shit!” Jack called, and just like that Michael was grabbed by him. Ray next to him gasped as Jack threw them to the ground, covering their bodies with his own, and before Michael could catch his breath he saw the roof above them collapse.

Big stone pieces started to rain down on them and he closed his eyes, knew that he couldn’t escape, could just hope, and Jack was shielding them from above and Ray was pressed against his side and then-

Then nothing happened.

He still squeezed his eyes shut, wondering if he was dead. Maybe this was what dying was like. A big scare and then nothing.

But he could hear Ray’s breath and then Jack was shifting and slowly he opened his eyes. Looking around, he saw he was in the same garden as before, and okay, maybe he was not dead.

Most of the stones were broken by the impact because they had been old and brittle but they laid around them in a neatly formed circle that looked artificial.

Or like a shield.

And in the middle of that shield sat Triella, her eyes glowing bright and red, and then she meowed. It was a proud sound and Michael could tell she was pleased with herself.

Jack quickly sat up and they followed suit, staring at the cat. Ray still scooted away as Triella ran towards them, nestling into Michael’s lap. She rubbed her head against his chest, and carefully he reached up to stroke her soft fur.

“Thanks… I guess,” he mumbled.

She meowed happily, and a cold breeze blew through the ruined garden, smelling of decay and rot.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for your positive feedback! As always Chapter 3 - Andromeda goes online in a week!


	3. Andromeda - The Chained Maiden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I don’t think it would be easy to kill him.”  
> “But someone obviously did.”  
> “I am guessing someone who he trusted. He let his guard down around them.”  
> Gavin bit his lip. “That’s horrible.”

_Chapter 3_

**Andromeda**

_The Chained Maiden_

 

The archive seemed to be on the other damn end of the world. They walked through the corridors of the castle, down stairs and passed what seemed like a thousand doors and a hundred other corridors. It was a maze, proud and beautiful and confusing.

The Prince didn’t seem to think about it, he was walking in front, next to Geoff and babbling the whole time. Geoff listened attentively and Gavin was pretty sure he just wanted to be on his good side.

That was probably a really great plan, considering that the Prince didn’t show any hesitance to make Ryan pay - if it was his version or not.

“It’s fascinating,” Ryan next to him said and Gavin turned towards him. He was speaking quietly, obviously didn’t want the Prince to pay attention to him.

“What do you mean?”

“He talks like you. The structure of the sentences, the way he pronounces things, the words he chooses,” he explained.

“Well, he is me.”  
  
“But he’s not. At least I think he’s not.” Ryan frowned over his own wording. “It really depends, you know? Is your behavior in your DNA or is it formed by your experiences? I always thought it was the second but you and he lived completely different lives. It shows in his movements, don’t you think?” He nodded ahead and Gavin turned around, letting his eyes wander over the Prince.

“He walks really quietly,” Ryan continued. “He listens closely, I think he takes in his surroundings quite well. As royalty he surely learned to wield a weapon, a sword or a bow. It’d say a bow by the way he moves. I don’t think it would be easy to kill him.”

“But someone obviously did.”

“I am guessing someone who he trusted. He let his guard down around them.”

Gavin bit his lip. “That’s horrible.”

“It is,” Ryan agreed quietly. “And still after this all… he and you are so very similar.”

“You mean besides that fact that I am not actively trying to kill you?” Gavin asked and saw how Ryan’s mouth twitched into a short smile.

“Yeah. Besides that. Thanks.”

“So there has to be a factor we have in common,” Gavin went on. “And that one should be pretty obvious, isn’t it?”  
  
“Oh yeah?”

“The people around us,” Gavin told him. “Geoff, Jack. Michael and Ray, and I suppose you as well. I guess they formed us to some degree.”

Ryan fell silent as he thought about it before he nodded slowly. “That must be it.”

They threw each other a short smile before quickly letting the topic drop, the conversation a bit too deep for this kind of situation.

A bird passed by them, just like that, and they both stared at it as it nonchalantly landed on the Prince shoulders before vanishing in a burst of sparks.

“The others are here as well,” the Prince announced.

“Um…” Geoff said slowly and they stopped.

“What?”

“Did that bird just-”  
  
“Oh!” Lifting his hand, the Prince let the bird reappear in his palm. “May I introduce you to my demon? It’s called The Lightbringer.”

“That’s a demon?” Gavin spluttered out. “Why do I get a shitty demon? It’s tiny! Is it part of the deal?”

The Prince smiled humorlessly. “Not quite. Let’s say I had another run in with the Nether, when I was very young. Even before Geoff took me in. It wasn’t until later that I realized this little fellow had come with me.”

The bird really was small. With black eyes and his neatly folded wings, fire in each feather. With a movement of his hand, the bird disappeared again and the Prince shrugged. “But that’s not what we’re here for. What I was trying to say was: Ray, Michael and Jack are outside.”

“Maybe we should regroup with them first,” Geoff said absently, a disturbed look on his face. Gavin could see that Geoff was also still trying to absorb the fact that this version of himself had already died once. He at least was pretty sure that was what “another run with the Nether” meant. Perhaps that was why he seemed to be taking this death so lightly? He didn’t have much time to ponder as the Prince kept talking.

“They are fine,” the Prince assured them. “They have someone watching over them, don’t worry!”

Ryan raised an eyebrow. “They do? Who is it?”

“Yeah, hold on. Can we trust them?” Geoff added.

“Of course we can!” the Prince replied, ignoring Ryan’s question entirely. He reached out, taking Geoff’s hand in his and pulled. “Come on! we wanted to go to the archive! You said we would!”

Geoff hesitated; Gavin could see how he wanted nothing more than to run out there to check on the others himself, but he also wanted to stay on the Prince’ good side. They needed him here; without him they could get so easily lost and who knows what else he could do. Geoff was wary of him.

Gavin wondered if the Prince could tell.

“We can go to the archive, I guess,” he said slowly and the face of the Prince lit up but it fell just as quickly again with his next words. “The sooner we figure things out, the sooner we are out of here.”

Something like hurt crossed over the Prince’s face but he didn’t say anything, still holding on to Geoff’s hand.

“Can you send your bird out to look after them?” Ryan offered and immediately got glared at. “I’m sure you also want to make sure that they are alright, despite whoever is looking out for them.”

The Prince scowled at him, but waved his hand to summon Lightbringer once more. With a single gesture, the bird was sent off and Geoff gave a quick nod. “Thank you very much.”  
  
“You’re welcome,” the Prince said before turning back around and leading the way. “Come on, it’s not much further.”

They went the rest of the way in a slightly awkward silence. Gavin could see Geoff and Ryan both mentally piecing through what the Prince had fleetingly told them. He had already died once before, and had made a deal with a demon, the Lightbringer. Had King Ramsey known about his demon? If he had already died once, what made his second death different from the first that lead to this other deal? God, he had died! _Twice!_ Why was that only just now sinking in? Gavin’s head was beginning to hurt.

They went down another flight of stairs until the Prince stopped in front of another wooden door that looked just like the other hundred they had passed. Pushing it open, he revealed a surprisingly large room beyond, stuffed full with shelves and books, some even spilled on the floor.

It was dusty and Gavin instantly had to sneeze. “This place is a right mess!”

“It is,” the Prince agreed. “Since Jack left, some places of this castle have been… neglected. The new king,” he threw a quick look towards Ryan, “Was more focused on waging war than history and order.”

“Yeah, I sucked. We get it.” Ryan rolled his eyes and the Prince seemed slightly taken aback by that but didn’t push on, rather left him alone.

“The kingdom was at war?” Geoff asked. “I think you said something about that before.”  
  
“We fought over land with one of our neighbour countries, Fieldhollow. In the end we won, but a lot of brave men died.” He shook himself. “It was horrible. Each morning we would get the reports of the dead, too many names of people I knew. But King Haywood just pushed on.”

A sudden pain struck through Gavin's head as if the other's rage hit him like a physical form. But just as he reached up to hold his head, he knew it wasn't rage.

It was sorrow.

Such a deep and terrified sorrow and he sat on a throne, the crown heavy on his head. Next to him was a bigger throne and in it sat the man he despised. The man who had killed his father, who had asked him a few weeks later to kneel in front of him.

The man who had sat the crown on his head, who had allowed him this little power over the country that was his home.

It was all part of a cunning plan, Gavin knew that. This way he felt like he had some kind of rank, some method to speak up against the new king and maybe steer the kingdom into a better direction.

It had worked and he hadn't rebelled too much, had told himself to wait it out.

Geoff would come back.

Geoff would take his throne again.

Until now he had done nothing more than butt heads with the new king, but the letter in his lap was gripped so tight, it nearly ripped in half. The words were distorted and he couldn't read them anymore, but he didn't need to.

They were burned into his very soul.

He stood slowly, keeping a hand braced against his throne and looked up.

Ryan was hunched over some reports, Ray standing next to him, one of Ray's hands resting on Ryan's shoulder as he pointed something out in the documents.

Ray who was Ryan's counselor, Ray who was the closest to him.

Ray who turned towards him now, even though he hadn't said something yet, and still the other could read it in his face. The rapier at his hip, the red cloak held together by the rose clasp.

He paled, his hand slipping from Ryan's shoulder as they looked at each other and the words burned in his throat.

_“Michael has fallen.”_

“Gavin?”

He was shaken, and flinched because Ryan and Geoff were now in front of him, and he realized he was sitting on the cold floor. Both of his hands were pressed against his head as if he was trying to keep it together, but now he let them sink.

Staring past both of them, he found the Prince still standing, observing him with a childish curiosity.

“It was Michael,” Gavin whispered. “He died in the war.”

“He did,” the Prince agreed quietly. “But he came back home.”

“He made a deal with a demon.”  
  
“With Triella, yes. She’s the one looking out for the others here. She’s meant to protect. Michael went into the Nether and came back with her. He returned shortly after Geoff took the throne again and everything… everything was back to the way it was supposed to be.”

“Until you got killed,” Geoff said carefully and the Prince nodded.

“Yes. Until then.” He turned around, moving further into the room. “The reports of the kingdom are all in books with green bindings. That should make it easier to find.”

Gavin slowly tried to stand and the other two helped him. He was glad for that, as his knees still felt a bit weak.

“Are you okay?” Geoff asked.

He wasn’t quite sure. He wasn’t hurt but confused and again he reached for his head. “I saw,” he finally settled on. “I was him when he got the message that Michael was dead. It was…” He didn’t know how to describe it. It was surreal and the more he thought about it, the more he knew that his legs weren’t shaking because of the sudden pain or the shock of being somewhere, someone else - it was the grief. He had felt the pain slowly settle in with each passing moment as he understood what this letter meant, what was missing now.

“Like a vision?” Ryan asked and Gavin nodded.

“I think so. It was really strange.”

“Okay, let’s find these damn reports, so that we can get out of here,” Geoff said.

It was easier than they had imagined. When Gavin found the first green book, he sighed inwardly because there were a lot. For every year, for some months, for special festivals, and they were all over the place.

Still, the moment he opened this one, he found it empty. A bit dumbfounded, he stared at the white page before he realized that this book either didn’t have any clue and therefore wasn’t part of this dimension, or the Prince simply didn’t know what was written in it.

Whatever it was, it made things easier as he simply skipped through the empty pages before going through the next book.

They worked in silence and he had just stood up to check on another shelf when he noticed that Ryan had a book with actual words in it. He was sitting at one of the tables and Gavin stepped closer to read over his shoulder.

“I think you got the right one,” he said quietly and Ryan nodded. He pointed to one entry on the page.

It was titled _The Second Crowning Of King Geoffrey Ramsey._

“I think I’m pretty close.”

“Yeah.”

He turned the page and Gavin read briefly through it. The festival to celebrate the true King’s return, Jack as his counselor, himself as his heir. Michael coming back from the dead, the weeks that followed.

Ryan was a faster reader than him and turned the pages before he was quite ready but Gavin was a bit glad for that. This other world or dimension or timeline - whatever it was - was strangely fascinating to him. It was like a distant echo and he could nearly pretend to smell the minced meat from the festival, could feel himself pulling Michael into a tight hug. The somehow familiar weight of the crown on his head.

Ryan tensed next to him and Gavin hurried to catch up but even before that the other pointed to one entry.

_“In the morning hours Prince Ramsey was found lifeless in bed by a maid. Attempts to revive him failed and the doctors determined he had already been dead for many hours. Foul play was suspected and the king ordered an investigation and interrogation of all residents of the castle. A kingdom-wide day of mourning was announced for the day of the funeral.”_

Gavin shook himself. Even though he had known about that, it was still eerie to think about it. He - or at least a version of him - had been _killed._

Still, he forced himself to read on because maybe he could forget this whole thing when they got out of him. But it only got worse.

“Geoff and Jack searched for the murderer,” Ryan said quietly and looked up. Gavin followed his gaze and found the Prince close by, searching through a shelf. Right now, Gavin didn’t want him around. He wasn’t quite sure why but who knew how he would react to the news.

“Of course they did,” he answered and kept an eye on the Prince while Ryan read on. He suddenly didn’t want to know who did it. What if he got sucked into another vision? What if he would feel the same things that the Prince had felt?

He didn’t want to experience his death.

“Oh God,” Ryan mumbled and Gavin could feel him go stiff, could hear how his breathing picked up.

“Did they find a suspect?”  
  
“They did,” he responded. “It was Michael.”

And now Gavin couldn’t help himself but turn his attention back to the report. Back to where Ryan’s finger pointed and even before he could read the neatly written words, he said, “No way.”

But there it was.

_“After a thorough investigation, the culprit has been revealed to be the king’s own warrior, Michael Jones. During an interrogation with King Ramsey and Sir Pattillo, Jones admitted to the horrendous crime and was locked away, forfeiting his title.”_

“No way…” Gavin repeated and felt his hair stand on edge. “Michael would never.”  
“It’s not your Michael,” Ryan reminded him, but gave a short nod as if he was agreeing to what he said. “He was executed…”

Gavin read on and found that entry around two weeks later.

_“Jones was publicity executed by hanging at the gallows by order of the king. When asked for his final words, Jones was silent, and only stared in the direction of the king’s dais. His body was burned shortly afterward.”_

“Bloody hell… They hung him.”

“Yeah.”

They threw each other a look and Gavin leaned against a shelf, trying to work through that. Michael? His boi?

Fine, he didn't know this Michael here, but he couldn't imagine it. But the Prince had said that Michael had gone to war, had fallen there. That surely could change people, right? And then this form of hell, this Nether... Who knew what he had to endure?

But enough to twist him to... to do something like this?

Ryan was watching him with concern, asking carefully, "Are you okay?"

He shrugged a bit helplessly because he really didn't know. How was he suppose to react to that?

"We need to tell him," he finally mumbled. "Maybe all of this will be over then."

"I wonder why Michael did it..."

"I don't know." Wrapping his arms around himself, he suddenly felt cold again. Freezing. His breath condensated in front of him and Ryan threw him a weird look but didn't say a thing.

He turned back around, licked his lips before standing up. "We found it," he announced and put the report on the table, pushing it away from him. "The report about your death."

The Prince looked up from the book in his hand that he was reading, though Gavin could now see that it was empty. He glared at Ryan, which seemed to be his normal reaction to seeing the man, and Gavin knew that it kind of was. Trained by months of working together with him because rage was so much easier to endure than crushing sadness, than loneliness. Because back then it had only been him and Ray.

Ray who was so vehement that Ryan wasn't as bad, even though he had sent out Michael.

And Michael wasn't coming home anymore.

"Are you sure?" the Prince said as he stepped closer. He stopped too soon, keeping a distance between himself and Ryan, and Ryan seemed to realize that. He stepped away from the table, gesticulating towards the book. "See for yourself if you don't believe me."

With distrust in his eyes, he picked the book up and began to read.

Gavin held his breath, could tell that Ryan did the same next to him, and now Geoff came closer, reading over the Prince's shoulder.

Gavin watched as the Prince's hands tightened around the book, his knuckles turning white before he simply stopped. Like he was frozen in time and Gavin knew that he had read it, knew that he had just learned that one of his best friends had murdered him, and he briefly wondered if the dimension would collapse in the next second, would cease to exist, and they would all wake up again in their own beds.

But then the green coat of the Prince began to waver, along with his long scarf and his unruly hair. It was as if some wind was coming from beneath, but then the air around him twisted and turned right before the book went up in flames.

Gavin jumped and Geoff quickly retreated away from the Prince as he shut the burning book, suffocating the fire.

"Liar," he simply said before his eyes fell on Ryan. "You're a liar."

"I am not," Ryan said slowly and raised his hands to show he was no threat. "I just found it."

"You manipulated it!"

"When? You were in here with me the whole time!"

"I watched him read it," Gavin added. "He had no time to... like fake all those entries."

"Michael would never!" the Prince yelled. "Haywood's a liar!"

"I literally just found it an-" Ryan tried to appease him when the Prince threw the book at him. Ryan swatted it away quick enough and it landed on the floor, still smoldering.

"Hey-"

"Liar!" the Prince called out and made his way around the table. "How dare you! You sent Michael out into this war, you were the one who got him killed in the first place! You just sat on your fake throne all day and let your men die for your cause!"

"That wasn't m-"

"You killed Geoff and then Jack left to find him and then you got Michael killed!" the Prince cried out, not letting the other get a word in. "You twisted Ray into believing you somehow and now you dare... you just dare to accuse Michael like that! After everything you did! After he went out there for you!"

"Wait," Gavin peeped up as Ryan retreated, but the Prince just came closer, not listening to any of them.

"Michael Jones was my friend since childhood," he went on, shoulders square as he stormed towards them. "He became a warrior to protect us! He stood in front of my or Geoff's room every damn night to make sure that nobody would do us any harm! He was loyal to the core, a word you don't even seem to know!"

Ryan's back collided with a shelf and he couldn't retreat any further. Hands still raised, he tried again, "That wasn't m-"

"Don't you dare talk back to me, Vagabond!" the Prince screamed and Gavin did the only thing he could think of. He pushed himself between both of them because the Prince surely wouldn't hurt himself, right? Apparently he needed them to solve this mess.

"Stop," Gavin begged and the Prince actually did. He stood right in front of him and stared at him in bewilderment as if he couldn't believe what he was doing.

"Step out of the way," he told him harshly. "Don't you understand what he did to me? How much he destroyed us all?"

Gavin wasn't sure if he could answer because the Prince was radiating heat like a fire. He couldn't even retreat any further because he could feel Ryan right behind him, and the Prince might actually hurt him. Maybe he wasn't as valuable anymore.

"It wasn't this Ryan," he said and his voice was tiny, shaking.

Still, the Prince didn't move. They watched each other, and Gavin felt like they were both waiting for the other to avert their eyes. And God, he was nearly ready to do it because there was something very dark lurking in the Prince's eyes right now. Maybe it was madness or the strain of losing over and over again. Probably both.

But now Gavin couldn't look away, watched it curl and fester like an infected wound the other just wouldn't allow to heal.

A restless spirit, wandering in his own little world.

"Gavin." That was Geoff and they both turned towards him. He stood by the table, carefully picking up the book that was perfectly fine again. Apparently a clue couldn't be destroyed in this world.

"Michael confessed," he said slowly, searching for the right page again. "He confessed and was convicted. They hung him because he killed you."

"No," the Prince replied, but he didn't seem that convinced anymore. He was rather begging. "He protected me and you. He was loyal."

"You said he stood guard at your door," Geoff went on. "Of course someone did, you were the Prince. So either he let someone pass or he did it himself. In neither of this entries it is said that Michael had any wounds, so he didn't fight against an intruder." Slowly, he stepped closer to hold the book out to him. "He had an opportunity and just because we don't know his reasons, it still seems logical."

Gavin threw a look towards the Prince and found him breathing heavily. His chest was heaving as he stared at Geoff and then the book. He shook his head but didn't try to talk back anymore.

Without really thinking about it, Gavin reached out to touch him, to comfort him in some way because this had to be a shock, a punch in the guts.

He hadn’t expected the Prince to fracture like glass.

Startled, he quickly pulled his hand back but the damage was already done. Spiderweb cracks ran all over the other’s body, distorting him slightly as he flinched back.

“I’m sorry,” Gavin quickly said. “I didn’t know…”

The Prince didn’t even appear to listen to him; he stared down at his broken hands, watched how the cracks caught the lights, and his silence had something haunting to it. Like he was just now really grasping that he wasn’t human anymore, that he wasn’t real.

Gavin stepped a bit closer, wanted to say something, anything really, to break the eerie silence, but Ryan grabbed his hand and pulled him back.

The movement seemed to startle the Prince out of his trance and his eyes quickly traveled from one to the other and there was no more darkness in them. They were big and green and scared as they finally were stuck on Gavin. There was a crack dividing his left one.

“I’m going to show you,” he whispered. “He didn’t do it. He would never.”

Gavin shivered, because the other was actually trying to assure him as if making _him_ believe it, could somehow change the facts. He didn’t know what to say to that, and maybe that made everything worse, because now the Prince was stepping away from him, hiding his hands, as the cracks in his face were slowly starting to mend.

“I am going to find Michael,” he went on. “I am going to find him and ask him and you will see… you will all see! He didn’t do it! He never would!”

He was in denial, Gavin realized, but he didn’t know how to break him out of it and Ryan was still holding him back, which was probably for the best because he really didn’t want to get any closer to the Prince. A part of him feared him and he was pretty sure the Prince could tell.

“It wasn’t Michael,” he insisted before turning away from them. It was an abrupt motion, letting his scarf wave behind him as he squeezed past Geoff.

Geoff reached out and caught his arm, “Wai-”  
  
“No!” The Prince freed himself and with one last haunted look toward them, he was off. Running through the archive, he pulled the door open before disappearing through it, and Geoff was right after him, calling his name.

Gavin stood still where he had been left and slowly let the breath out he hadn’t even noticed he was holding. His body was shaking before he could pull himself together and turn towards Ryan. “Are you alright?”  
  
“I think so,” he responded slowly. “No offense but your alter ego is way scarier than you.”

“I guess having a demon does that to you.”  
  
Ryan huffed amused before he shook his head. His hand grasped Gavin’s arm again as he pulled him along. “We have to hurry.”  
  
“What? Why do we have to chase after that lunatic?”

“Because he’s after Michael!” Ryan insisted. “And seeing as he can’t find his Michael he will find ours and he will have no fucking clue what is going on.”  
  
“Oh God,” Gavin mumbled as it slowly dawned to him. “And if Michael says something wrong…”  
  
“Exactly.”

They stormed out of the archive, chasing after them, but couldn’t even see the others anymore. Their only leads were the thundering footsteps and Geoff’s occasional calling, but they echoed in the empty hallways.

They turned a corner a bit too fast and Gavin nearly ate shit against the other wall before he could push himself on. The thought of how that book had caught fire, how hot the air around the Prince had felt, the darkness in his eyes… it made him worried of what might happen to Michael and so he ran, Ryan’s footsteps right behind him.

“Gavin,” the other called sharply, and he threw a look across his shoulder.

“Wha-” But now he could actually see what was wrong because he could watch the castle start to decay behind them. Ivy and moss rapidly engulfed the walls, stones falling from the ceiling and breaking on the floor which was soon covered in rubble, little blades of grass poking between the cracks in the tiles.

“Come on!” Ryan yelled, grabbing Gavin’s wrist and pulling him down the hallway away from the decay. Gavin stumbled but soon they were racing the destruction which seemed to be catching up behind him. They fled down several corridors, but without the prince to guide them, they ran into a dead end. Gavin clung to Ryan’s back as the decay caught up with them, both watching in horror as more ceiling stones fell close to their feet, when they heard a rumble beneath them.

Looking down, they saw the stones beneath their feet begin to crumble, and neither had a chance to jump away before the floor collapsed, dropping them into darkness below.

 

* * *

 

"Gavin!" Geoff called out but the Prince didn't listen. He darted down the halls that were so familiar to him and Geoff had to try his best to keep up with him. And shit, it was hard, the other was obviously well trained while Geoff was absolutely getting too old for this shit.

But he had seen that crushed look on the Prince's face and it had tugged on his heart strings. How could it not? Fuck, he looked like Gavin! He would throw him those small glances, eyes full of stars and admiration.

But now he wouldn't fucking listen to him!

"Gavin, stop!" he cried out and fuck, it was hard to catch his breath here. He was already wheezing but if he was right, the Prince would go after Michael next, and he really couldn't let that happen. This guy was dangerous, demon or not, and he was falling apart right in front of their eyes, which really didn't help the case. And Geoff would be lying if he hadn't already realized that he had some kind of power over him.

When the Prince looked at him, he didn't see him but King Ramsey instead. It was the same issue with Ryan, and it was only thanks to their Gavin that they could somehow remind him that his whole reality was off, remind him that this little world he had built for himself here wasn't real. True, that had probably saved Ryan before, this reminder right in front of his very eyes that this was not the man he despised so much, but with the Prince losing his grip... Geoff feared he would realize with Gavin gone he could play pretend so much longer.

Could take his revenge on Ryan, could keep them trapped here so he didn't have to pass on. And they had solved his case, right? They were still here because the Prince was in denial and if he was like their Gavin in any form, it would be hard to break through his thick skull.

"Gavin!" he called again and then, because he somehow knew it would work, because that word was sacred in its own right - at least here, he called, "Buddy!"

He had expected a reaction but he hadn't thought that the Prince would just stop dead in his tracks. Geoff saw how he looked over his shoulders, eyes wide in wonder right before he crashed into him because there was no way for him to stop. Twisting a bit to the side, he managed to spin them enough so that the Prince's head didn't collide with the wall, but he got caught on his feet instead and they both hit the floor.

Gasping, Geoff laid on his back, not yet ready to pick himself up, but the Prince was faster. He was already fighting to sit up and Geoff grasped the long scarf. "Shit on my dick, just hold still. Don't you dare run another step!"

But the Prince didn't look like he was running away again. He just sat next to him and kind of stared. His hands found Geoff's on his scarf and he squeezed. "Say it again!"

"What? Shit on my dick?"

"No, Geoff." He was laughing now, his eyes bright but it was a mask. Paper thin and beneath was the sorrow. "You are being silly! Say it!"

He of course knew what the other wanted to hear. "Buddy."

The Prince laughed out. "Again!"

"Buddy."

"One more time! Say it again! I want to hear it again and again!"

"Gav-"

"No! It's just us two, Geoff! You can say it, you always say it." The Prince was tugging at his hands. "Say it! I missed it so much! It's my nickname, right? Only you and Jack are allowed to say it! So say i-"

"Gavin," Geoff tried a bit sharper but the other shook his head wildly.

"No! You are doing it all wrong! You have to say it, you have to... I'm... I'm Buddy. You always..." He was trailing off and slowly Geoff sat up. He still held onto the other's hand, fearing he would run away but now he rather seemed confused.

"Gavin-"

"No, Geoff... Please..." he was begging. "Just say it. One more time and I won't bother you again. I promise!"

"I'm not him, Gavin."

"I just... just want to hear it once more. Just once and I..."

"Gavin," he repeated and the green eyes finally found his face. They were wet and his lips wobbled a bit as he desperately tried to keep it together.

"Gavin, I’m not him. I’m not yours," Geoff tried to explain to him but the other just shook his head.

"No... you are mine... You and Jack... you would never leave. You said you would never but I..." His voice cracked and his hands flew up to cover his face. It happened so fast that Geoff couldn't stop him, but the Prince didn't move.

"I woke up..." the Prince whispered. "I woke up and everyone was just gone. I just got you all back! It was like the first time. The first time when I returned from the Nether and you picked me up. You and Jack returned and you... you slayed the monster! You took your crown and went back on the throne and I was so damn proud of you! But Michael also returned and it was like... like this whole nightmare never happened! Things had changed but we were back together. We were all back together just like it was supposed to be!" He folded in on himself as if he wanted to disappear. His rapid, shallow breathing shook his whole form. "Then I woke up and I was alone again. Not even Ray was there anymore and they... they told me I got killed. That someone wanted me dead just like when I was a child and everything... everything was just lost again. I can't... not again... I just can't do this anymore, so please... please say it, Geoff. I really, really need you to say it."

Geoff didn't. He knew he shouldn't, that it really wouldn't help them in any way to allow the Prince to live in his dream world because then they would all get sucked up in it. What he could do was to pull him close and hold him tight and bury his face in his unruly hair.

The Prince's breath shook for a second, Geoff could feel him rocking beneath his grip, and he couldn't help but close his own eyes.

"I'm sorry, Gavin," he whispered. "I'm sorry I am not who you need me to be."

He could feel the boy move and opened his eyes again, didn't want to see him run off in this condition but he didn't. Gavin simply stared down at his hands, traced the slowly fading cracks with one of his fingers before he said, "I sold my soul for this... for this world here. Because I don't want to die and be alone, Geoff. I don't want to, not again." He sniffed, wiped his face before looking up to him, offering his hands like a proof. "But look what I've become. I'm not a human anymore, I am barely more than... what? A ghost? A shadow? Something clinging to life with all the strength that I got."

Geoff couldn't avert his eyes, was trapped in the green ones and he didn't know what to say.

"Please, Geoff," Gavin went on. "Please don't take this from me..."

They watched each other for a while until Geoff found the strength to reach down. He took the other’s hands in his, hiding the cracks and holding tightly. “Gavin, you need to move on,” he said carefully. “You can’t just… linger here. _We_ can’t just stay here.”

“But I’m scared…” Gavin whispered. “Can’t you take me with you? Can’t we stay together?”

“I can’t do that.”

“I will have to pay, Geoff. I sold my soul for this. Please, don’t let them take me. Don’t let them hurt me!”

“What do you have to pay?”

“The Truth.”  
  
“What does that mean?”  
  
His hands flew up again, freeing themselves from Geoff’s grip as he pushed them against his head.

“I don’t know!” he called loudly. “I don’t know, Geoff! I don’t want to know! I don’t want to think about it! Stop it! Stop!” He stumbled to his feet and Geoff reached out, managed to grab his cloak. “Gav-”

“What do you mean?” the Prince blurted out suddenly, eyes big as he stared down at him, and it was like he was talking about something else suddenly. Like he was in another time, and Geoff pulled at him, making him crumple back on the floor. “What does that mean, Geoff?”

He didn’t know what the other was talking about but Gavin was clinging to him, staring up to his face. And Geoff noticed that he wasn’t wearing his usual clothing anymore, that he was cloaked in emerald and gold and the Prince leaned heavily against him.

“I’m getting tired…” he mumbled as he nuzzled into Geoff’s shoulder.

“It’s fine,” Geoff assured him as he wrapped an arm around the slender form, holding him tight. “Why don’t you just rest for a moment?”  
“I don’t want to sleep yet,” Gavin mumbled. “I want to stay with you longer…”

“I’ll still be here when you wake up, don’t worry about that.”

“Promise?”  
  
“I promise.”

Nearly instantly Gavin turned into a warm weight against him and Geoff held him close, letting his own eyes fall shut.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. What was going on here? What was he supposed to do? Was this some kind of strange clue?

It had sounded nearly easy in the beginning. Figure out this fucking murder case and get out of here, but now they would leave this Gavin behind. Would leave him to pay whatever The Truth was.

But they couldn’t just give up and… and stay here. This right here was no life, was no place to stay. Fuck, there wasn't even food!

Letting his head drop against the wall behind them, he let his eyes flutter open again. Now that he didn’t have to deal with a distraught Gavin, he had the time to look around.

He jerked in surprise as he glanced down the hallway they had come through, only to find it half-destroyed. The ceiling had fallen in in the middle of the intersection of corridors they had passed, and the walls were barely standing around that area. Everything was overgrown with ivy that must have come in from the hole in the ceiling, and green moss had replaced the green banners on the walls. The floor was filthy with rubble, dirt, and stone dust, creating obstacles that had not been in their way moments ago.

But it all stopped just a few yards away from them. Above them, the ceiling was intact, beside them hung a beautiful tapestry instead of vines, and the floor was clear of debris around them.

“What the fuck?” Geoff whispered, careful not to wake the Prince. What had happened, and why had it stopped right before it got to them? And why the hell hadn’t he noticed something like a ceiling caving in?!

It was like… like a shield around them, like they were trapped in another time. Back when this castle had been beautiful and not… not a ruin. Back in the Prince’s time.

He wondered if that was the Prince’s doing and instinctively knew that it was. That somehow the Prince was controlling the time in this place and had now lost control.

Where were Ryan and Gavin?

The other three?

If he was right and this was the state of the castle, then he could only hope that they were alright, that they had found a safe place, hadn’t been hit by any debris, but how could he be sure?

Nervously licking his lips, he looked down to the sleeping Prince, and even though he felt guilty waking him, he knew they didn’t have a lot of time.

Rubbing the other’s arm, he jostled him gently. “Hey, Gavin.”

The Prince stirred, opening his green eyes to look up to him. He couldn’t even have been deeply asleep but he surely looked like it as he rubbed his eyes.

“Geoffy?”  
  
Not reacting to the weird nickname, Geoff nodded towards the destroyed hallway and asked, “Do you see that?”

The Prince turned his head, looking in that direction before frowning. “See what?”  
  
So he couldn’t even see it. For him it was just the same as before and he probably had no control over it whatsoever.

Geoff figured it was connected to his mood, his well-being and right now he was too agitated, too confused. Out of his depth.

“It’s alright,” Geoff told him. “Sorry for waking you, but it’s not really the right time for sleeping. Don’t you think?”  
  
The Prince shrugged but didn’t move, just continued to lean heavily against Geoff. That was probably for the best, as Geoff wasn’t quite sure if he could follow him around. Maybe this was the only safe place in the castle right now, maybe this time bubble didn’t follow the Prince, even though he was pretty sure it did.

“Do you really think it was Michael?” the Prince asked quietly, and Geoff was surprised that he was the one bringing up this topic.

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

The other fell quiet, nuzzling closer with a heavy sigh, and Geoff simply waited, continued to rub his arm. When the Prince finally talked, it was not more than a whisper, hard to catch.

“Michael died,” he said. “And I got really sad about it. Ray as well. It was only us two then, you know? Everybody else was gone.”

“But he came back,” Geoff reminded him. “We all did, right?”

The Prince started to smile as he wrapped his arms around Geoff’s middle. “Yeah and I was so happy. You and Jack… just walked in one day and you killed King Haywood. And just a few weeks later the guards at the gates came to tell us that Michael was there, asking for an audience. My boi came back as well, Geoff! We were all together again!” His smile fell slowly, turning into a dark frown. “But Michael… Michael had changed.”

“What do you mean with changed?” Geoff asked.

“His demon… Triella, changed him. He told me that his demon was meant to protect and of course that suited him but he got… a bit obsessed with that.” Hiding his face in Geoff’s chest, his voice only came by muffled. “He was always around, even more than usual. And I didn’t necessarily mind that but it was strange for him. Michael was good friends with many other warriors. He would train with them, work with them, but after he came back from the Nether it was as if there was only me and Ray. Triella could create shields and sometimes I noticed that Michael would put them around us, to trap us to stay with him and so that nobody from the outside could disturb us. It was…” He struggled with the word, before he settled on, “Scary, I think. Sometimes it was a bit scary. I was also happy that he was back but I wanted to spend time with you and Jack as well. I missed you all! Sometimes Michael didn’t quite understand that.” The Prince sat up and looked Geoff in the face, open and honest. “He wanted to protect me, not kill me.”

Geoff gazed back at him, silently absorbing the information, and finally sighed. ”He did confess, Gavin.”  
  
“He would never,” the Prince insisted. “I swear!”

And with another sigh Geoff gave in, figuring he would only start upsetting the other again. “I believe you. So...I guess that means we have to keep looking for clues.”  
  
The Prince nodded shyly.

“Let’s go look for the others first,” Geoff offered and instantly felt the other squirm.

“They won’t like me anymore… I screamed at them,” he whined, and Geoff rolled his eyes. He pulled the Prince up but kept a tight hold on him.

“Don’t be a baby.”

“I’m not a baby!” But he was smiling now, a bit unsure still, but it was there and in the corner of his eyes, Geoff could see how their little time bubble expanded, the rubble, the moss, and the vines disappearing.

Good, so they better keep close to the Prince.

“Come on, let’s go.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> If you want you can check out the playlist for this story:  
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGVXaIVDxRjuYJg96NzGNSWw_k5aSvtoE


	4. Apus - Bird Of Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin tapped his left shoulder with one hand. “Lightbringer, come here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am late because I was playing Fire Emblem, welp

_Chapter 4_

**Apus**

_Bird Of Paradise_

 

The impact pushed the air out of Gavin’s lungs and he was pretty sure he blacked out for a moment. He had landed on something hard that made pain explode in his head like tiny fireworks and now, as he slowly snapped out of his daze, he found it hard to breathe. Something heavy laid on him but he couldn’t see.

It was really dark around, the little light he had came from above. Cold winter light that hurt his eyes and he blinked to get used to it only to watch it vanish.

The hole he had crashed through was barely more than a wide crack now, shrinking even more as he watched, and he tried to call to whoever was doing it to stop, to wait, he was still down here, but there was not enough air in his lungs.

A punched out groan finally escaped him and he freed one of his arms to reach up. The light faded between his fingers and he was left in complete darkness.

It was quiet now, quiet and dark, and for a long time Gavin didn’t dare to move.

His heart beat violently and his eyes were wide open as if he still hoped they would get used to the darkness but not without any light at all.

Slowly he let his arm sink, and for the first time he noticed that the rubble around him had vanished, was simply gone, and because of that he laid flat on his back, no sharp edges prodding at his spine. The heavy smell of dust was also gone, replaced by a moldy scent that seemed to linger on his tongue. Right now it smelled old and abandoned. Like a bad place.

Somehow that made sense in his mind.

Taking a careful breath, the weight on top of him was still there and now, as he slowly forced himself to calm down, he could feel another heartbeat against his still trapped arm.

“Ryan,” he croaked out, reaching down. The other was warm, breathing, and that was good. But he didn’t react to his call, not when he jostled him, and slowly Gavin pushed him away, trying to sit up.

It hurt in his shoulder and his head was starting to pound as well. Just because whatever he had landed on first wasn’t there anymore, didn’t mean that his fall hadn’t happened at all.

“Bollocks,” he muttered as he pushed and pulled until he could sit and take a real breath. Still dark as dicks, as Geoff would put it, and he had to feel around to get a picture of his surroundings.

Okay, the ground was stone. That explained the hard landing. Besides that there really wasn’t a lot to feel except for Ryan.

“Hey,” Gavin called again, but his voice was small in the silence around them. He feared he was disturbing something down here.

Nervously looking around as if that would change a thing, he let his hands wander over Ryan. Breathing, that was good. His heart was also still beating but his eyes were closed. Had he hit something?

Carefully he examined the other’s head but came up with nothing.

“Come on, Rye…” he whispered. “Not the best time to take a nap.” Shit, what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t even see what was wrong with the other. Hell, he couldn’t even see where exactly he was!

What if Ryan was badly hurt? Broke something or was bleeding and Gavin just hadn’t noticed? What if it was internal bleeding?

No, he shouldn't think like that! That would only make him panic and that was really the last thing they needed right now!

So, what did he know?

They had fallen through the floor which was now intact again, alright. He would just accept that because it was far from being the weirdest thing happening to him today. What else?

Ryan wasn’t conscious. After all they had both fallen quite hard and Gavin was pretty sure he had blacked out as well. Who knew, maybe Ryan had hit the ground harder? Or it had been his own bony ass that the other had cracked his skull open on.

A possibility, okay.

But maybe it hadn’t been the ground. Maybe it had been debris falling from above, hitting Ryan. Maybe Ryan had actually shielded him with his body.

Or used him as a cushion.

Gavin huffed nervously before he looked down to the second body again. He could make out no blood, which was good and- wait. He could see.

Not a lot, just barely more than the arch of Ryan’s shoulder. There was some light close by, coming from behind him, and he turned around.

There it was, still some distance away but certainly coming closer. It was flickering like fire and that would just be great. Trapped in here while some part of the castle was burning. He wouldn’t even be surprised at this point.

But he didn’t smell smoke, couldn’t feel any heat and maybe… maybe it was a torch. Maybe someone was coming for them, and somehow that was way scarier than a fire.

God knew what kind of freaks were wandering through this castle? Ghosts or demons or some things that were even worse.

“Ryan?” he whispered and without averting his eyes from the light, he shook him. “Ryan, I would really like for you to wake the hell up _now.”_

No such luck and maybe he should search for a hiding place for both of them. Even if he had to drag Ryan somewhere, as long as they were safe-

Looking around frantically, it was now bright enough to take their environment in.

A quiet whine escaped him because all around him were cells. Old prison cells with darkened bars and oh God, this was a dungeon, right?

Alright, a dungeon. Sure, why not.

Maybe they could even hide in one of those cells but what if whoever was coming closer had a key and locked them in? Or would just corner them in one of those cells?

But he couldn’t just stay out here in plain view!

Thankfully, he didn’t have to ponder much longer, because the older man abruptly groaned and scrunched up his face in pain.

“Wh...what the hell?”

“Ryan! Someone’s coming, Ryan! Get up!” Gavin dared to glance down and saw that Ryan’s eyes were barely fluttering open.

“Gav…?”

The light came closer, and now Gavin could see that whatever it was was lighting the torches on the walls as it passed. And then he realized that it came from the tiny spot, fluttering around the corner between the cells.

Ryan moved, he could feel it beneath his hands, but he only had eyes for the bird that now landed on the ground a few feet away.

Gavin could feel himself relax as he recognized it as the Prince’s demon, and maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do, considering that _it was a demon,_ but it was just so tiny. The flames in its feathers glowed like a soft fire, illuminating everything around them.

Throwing it a short glance, Gavin turned back around to Ryan, and in the new light he could observe him better. His eyes were closed again but he could see them move behind the lids. One of his hands had reached up to touch his shoulder, and carefully Gavin moved it aside to check for himself. He jumped when the torches around them lit up suddenly and threw a look over his shoulder.

The Lightbringer was still sitting there, hadn’t moved closer, and swallowing, Gavin said, “Thank you.”  
It chirped as an answer and he turned his attention back to Ryan.

“Can you hear me?” he asked carefully and the older nodded. Good, things were starting to get better.

Letting out a breath, Gavin let a hand brush through his hair. “Okay. I’ll check on your shoulder now.”

He did so very gently, pulling at the collar of the other’s hoodie and hissed in sympathy. Even in the shitty light and after this short time he could tell that the skin was getting quite colorful.

“Looks like it hurts.”  
  
“It does,” Ryan brought out. “But it’s passing.”  
  
“Are you sure it’s not broken?”

“Just bruised up.”

“Okay.” Sitting back, Gavin let him deal with it for a moment longer. Not that they had too much of a choice. They didn’t even have a band-aid here!

Looking around, he could make out the cells a bit better and it was a sad sight. They were tiny, nothing more inside than creaky old beds and mold. Oh, and shackles.

Jesus, what had they done here?

Shivering, he couldn’t imagine getting trapped in such a place. He’d go insane!

And there were so many! As he turned around there were cells as well. Rows and rows and he wondered if they all had been occupied.

In some he could see scratches on the stone walls. People counting days perhaps, even though down here was no sunlight. Maybe they could tell by when their food came.

Some had carved their names into the stone or the wood of the bed, some had tried themselves on actual sentences. Like a reminder that they were alive.

He briefly wondered if the Michael of this world had carved his name somewhere in here. If he had been scared, regretful, lonely.

Michael had been locked up for… killing him, or at least a version of him.

The thought made Gavin shiver and he wrapped his arms around himself. It was such a strange thought and sure, it wasn’t his Michael, but to just start imagining…

Shaking his head, he tried not to think about it and instead looked up when Ryan slowly sat with a groan. He reached out to steady him.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Gavin asked.

“Of course,” Ryan assured him but his hand wandered back up to his bruised shoulder. “It’s really nothing to worry about.”  
  
“If you say so…” Gavin mumbled but he was far from convinced. The other looked a bit pale, which was impressive considering all the fire around them painting everything red. But for now he would take his word.

“Where are we?” Ryan asked as he looked around, frowning at the different cells.

“I am guessing the dungeons.”  
  
“That’s a fucking disturbing place to be, and that’s coming from someone who spent most of his day with a ghost.”

Gavin chuckled, but it sounded nervous. Right now that was the most he could do because this place was really starting to give him the creeps. “Don’t forget the occasional demons.” He pointed towards the Lightbringer, and slowly, Ryan nodded.

“I am guessing it won’t hurt us?”

“It hasn’t before,” Gavin assured him. “Do you think… it will listen to me?”  
  
Ryan gazed thoughtfully at the little bird. “I guess you won’t know until you try?”

The younger man nodded, carefully holding out his hand towards it. “Here, birdie birdie?”

The Lightbringer continued to sit on the floor, ruffling its fiery feathers unamusedly. Ryan couldn’t help but grin.

“Apparently it doesn’t like that.”

Gavin pouted.“Well what do I say then?”

“Just call it by its name, maybe?”

“Alright…” Gavin tapped his left shoulder with one hand. “Lightbringer, come here.”

The bird chirped and complied, flitting up and taking a seat on that shoulder.

“It worked!” Gavin cried excitedly. He could see the bird in the corner of his eyes but most of all he could feel its warmth. It wasn’t unpleasant, far from it. It was cold here in the dungeon, cold and damp, and the Lightbringer felt like a tiny heater on his shoulder. “Alright, Lightbringer, can you get us out of here?” he asked and the bird chirped.

For a second they were dropped into darkness, but before he could even began to gasp, the torches lit up again, this time behind them, showing a clear way for them to go. Gavin threw an excited look towards Ryan. “It worked again!”  
  
“It most certainly did.”

“Thank you very much!” Gavin told the bird before standing up. His joints cracked at the movement and he nearly absentmindedly brushed himself off from any dust while also checking for any bruises. Besides a small bump on the back of his head he was alright.

Ryan took some more time to get on his feet. He moved carefully but when Gavin stepped closer to help, he shook his head. In the end, he did manage to stand with a soft grunt before rubbing his shoulder.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said, and with a nod from Gavin they began to move down the way the Lightbringer was showing them.

The torches were a great help down here, but they also dropped everything else in a horrifying, endless darkness, and Gavin soon learned to keep his eyes only on the lit path ahead of him. And maybe to stay close to Ryan.

It was scary down here, no denying it, and who knew if in the next second the ceiling wouldn’t rip open again. Or the floor. He didn’t think they could fall anywhere deeper but hell, and he wasn’t keen to find out.

“They seem to be intelligent,” Ryan said next to him, and he threw him a confused glance.

“The demons,” he explained, pointing to the Lightbringer still sitting on Gavin’s shoulder. “They understand human speech and it could show us the way. If it is the right one.”  
  
“I guess so,” Gavin mumbled. “Do you think it just listens to me because I look like the other one?”  
  
“Could be, yeah. Even though I bet it can tell that you are not him.”

Thoughtfully, Gavin threw a look to the little bird but wasn’t sure how to ask it. With his luck he would make it mad and that was really the last thing he wanted right now. With a sigh, he glanced up at the ceiling.

“I wonder where Geoff and the Prince went. Do you think they also fell down?”

“They had quite a headstart,” Ryan told him. “It could be that they are totally fine. Maybe they didn’t even notice what was going on and are now searching for us.”

“I hope so…” But what if not? What if Geoff had dropped down here and hadn’t as much luck as them? What if he was hurt or even worse?

He had no way to know and it churned heavily in his stomach. Not to forget about Michael, Ray and Jack. The Prince had said they were also here somewhere.

They could be hurt just as well, and they had nothing to help them with. No bandage, no medicine - nothing.

If none of those demons could heal they’d be screwed.

“Why do you think Michael killed you? Or rather the Prince?” Ryan asked, and again a question he couldn’t answer. He shrugged, careful to not disturb the bird.

“I don’t know. He’s gotten angry a lot but he’d never do something like that, you know that as much as me. So, what do you think?”

Ryan was quiet for a while. They reached the end of the rows of cells they were following and the torches to their right lit up. They headed that way and talking helped against the looming darkness around them.

Maybe the bird noticed his uneasiness because it was cooing softly next to his ear. It sounded nearly like a melody.

If so, Gavin didn’t recognize the song.

“Power? A rivalry?” Ryan finally offered. “I think we’re going to ask the Prince himself about that unless we can find out more about his Michael’s personal life elsewhere.”

“You mean like his diary or something? Snooping through his stuff? That’s rude, Rye.”

“That guy killed you,” he reminded him. “I think rudeness is the last of your problems there.”  
  
“Maybe he killed me because I was rude?” Gavin wondered and didn’t miss how Ryan rolled his eyes. “What? That could be, right?”

“If that was the reason, you’d have been dead years ago. Something must have happened between you guys.”

Gavin hummed in agreement before turning back towards the bird. “Do you know what happened?”

If it did, the bird wasn’t ready to tell and Gavin looked back ahead. “I wouldn’t feel good about looking through Michael’s stuff.”  
  
“If we come across his stuff or his room it is there for a reason,” Ryan told him. “If it’s a hint to solve this mess, we have to.”  
  
“But didn’t we already solve this whole thing?”

“I think we are only able to leave when the Prince actually believes that it was Michael. Right now he’s in denial.”  
  
“And for this we would need his diary, right?” Gavin asked. “Like a page saying, ‘Dear Diary, today I killed the Prince. It was a sunny day.’ or some shit like that.”  
  
“That would be ideal, yeah.”

They walked in silence for several more minutes. Gavin took another glance into the cells around them, freezing when he saw a shadow in one near them. “Ryan!”

The older man stopped as well, alarmed. “What? What is it?”

Gavin pointed to where the shadow was dragging its finger down the stone wall at the back of the cell, writing something and not appearing to have noticed them. They looked at each other, unsure of what to do, before Gavin plucked up what little courage he had and softly called, “Hello? Who are you?”

The shadow paused, stiffening, before slowly turning to face them. And for a moment, Gavin saw wide brown eyes under messy curls. The shadow opened its mouth, ran towards them, grabbed the bars- Gavin and Ryan cried out in surprise-

And then the Lightbringer flew forward, flapping its wings and brightening its flames to burn the shadow away. Gavin and Ryan shielded themselves from the intense heat and light, and when they were able to look again, the shadow was gone. All that was left was the writing on the wall.

_I N N O C E N T_

Gavin was staring at the single word but couldn’t quite concentrate yet. His heart was beating so violently, his whole body felt like pulsating along and he reached up to lay a hand over his chest. Trying to catch his breath, he leaned a bit forward and braced himself on his knee.

Holy shit. Holy shit, that had been… what? A ghost? But the Prince was a ghost, right? That right now had been different from the Prince, hadn’t it?

And oh God, those eyes. He had of course recognized those eyes but they had been so… so dark. Dark and sad and hopeless until they had found them.

Those eyes had recognized them!

“Innocent?” Ryan murmured, walking closer to the cell to get a better look.

“It was Michael!” cried Gavin, wrapping his arms around himself once more. “I know it was! I saw him!” He turned to glare at the Lightbringer. “Why did you do that, you little monster? He was going to say something to us!”

The bird chirped indignantly, flying up to nip him on the nose. “Ouch! You bloody little bastard!”

Ryan ignored Gavin’s squawking with expert ease as he studied the writing and looked around, waiting to see if the shadow would reappear. When it didn’t, he sighed and turned back to Gavin, who was clutching his nose and glaring daggers at the Lightbringer. The demon was sitting on his shoulder again and preening nonchalantly.

“Well, since your little friend here just scared off the lead we needed, we’re gonna have to keep going and look elsewhere.”

“It was Michael!” Gavin cried out again. He reached out, tugging at Ryan’s sleeve as if he had to make sure the other was listening. “That was Michael! Didn’t you see?”  
  
“Yeah, I saw him clearly,” Ryan assured him and now that Gavin looked closer, he noticed that the other was rather pale. Reaching up, Ryan brushed his hair out of his forehead with a sigh.

“This is really fucked up…”  
  
“He’s innocent!”

“Gavin, you don’t know that.”

“I do know! He wrote it on the wall! Look, you can still see it!”

“Just because he wrote it doesn’t mean it’s true,” Ryan reminded him. “He also confessed. Why would he confess only to take it back after it was too late?”

“Because it wasn’t true! Maybe he was being tortured!”

“By Geoff and Jack? Even in another world, why would they torture him?”  
  
“Well obviously not by Geoff and Jack but I am sure they had people for that! Why would Michael kill me in another world, then?!”

“Gavin, there’s no way that Geoff and Jack would ever let Michael be tortured, by themselves or anyone else. You and the Prince just have to accept the possibility that someone close to you could also hurt you.”

Gavin scowled, crossing his arms over his chest, but didn’t argue further to Ryan’s surprise. They continued their trek down the torch-lit hallways in silence but Gavin couldn’t shake the feeling off that Michael was innocent. Maybe Ryan was right, maybe he was also in denial; after all it was true, Michael had confessed and had been close enough to hurt the Prince.

But this ghost right now…

Frowning, he was sure this was another hint, but why was it throwing them off now? By now the hints had all pointed straight to Michael. Or had they?

He tried to see it like a big jigsaw, maybe he could rearrange the pieces but for now he couldn’t find them fitting.

Frustrated, he ruffled his own hair before looking up. The Lightbringer was flying in front of them, leaving behind a trail of sparks that made it easy to follow it and in the dim light they could make up stairs leading up. He sighed one last time before jogging to catch up so he wouldn’t be left behind in the darkness.

 

* * *

 

“I wanna go home.”

That was Ray, and Michael couldn’t help but agree. He still sat between the chunks of rubble, Triella purring in his lap as she cleaned herself, and fuck, he also really wanted to go home.

At least Ray was actually on his feet, walking around and not stumbling over any stones with an impressive ease. “I really, really want to go home right now.”

“Calm down,” Jack offered halfheartedly, and Michael was pretty sure they all saw it coming when Ray turned towards them in disbelief.

“Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down?!” He pointed to the debris around them. “Just now we were nearly squashed by this shit and then this strange… hell-kitten saved us, like what the fuck? Look at its eyes!”

“Ra-”  
  
“Not to forget the fucking funniest part of this whole thing!” he interrupted Michael before walking in his line again in between the rubble. “Someone or _something_ or whatever is writing my name everywhere! And yes, it’s my name! Neither of you can deny it!” Nobody did and with heavy gasps, Ray tore at his hair. “That’s still not fucking everything! No! We got this… this ghost of me and you know what? I did not sign up for this shit! I absolutely did not but hey, here I am! Fuck me!” He kicked one of the stones and promptly yelped when it didn’t move and he instead stubbed his toes.

“Ray…” Michael tried again, but the youngest man didn’t listen. He was walking around restlessly and for now he let him get out his nervous energy. He had every right to flip out right now.

“Imagine it like a video game,” Jack offered, and Michael threw him a funny look. As expected, Ray only huffed angrily.

“A video game, Jack? A fucking video game? Don’t ruin the only good thing in life for me, thank you!”

“I was rather talking about an objective,” Jack explained. He was also standing but let Ray also do his laps without interfering. “To get into the castle or to go home or something, we have to do something.”  
  
“We did not get sucked into a video game,” Michael reminded him.

“But this has to have some kind of purpose,” Jack said. “We can’t be here for nothing!” He threw a look to Michael before shrugging. “Also can you be sure? It’s a good enough explanation for me.”  
  
Touché.

Petting Triella, he thought some more about it, but before he could come to any conclusion the stones around them moved again.

They all jumped in surprise, but now the rotten smell of plants faded as well, getting replaced by the sweet scent of roses.

In the next second the garden was once again like they had found it before. Large, neatly overgrown and beautiful, and Michael sat in the shade of the roof that had nearly crushed them before.

“What the fuck?” Ray called and quickly moved away from the path and out in the open. Which was a good idea. Shooing Triella away, he and Jack followed his lead. No need to risk getting crushed again.

“What is this fucking place and what the fuck is going on here?” Ray asked agitatedly and retreated further. He yelped in a high pitched voice when a bush brushed against his arm and he swatted it away.

“I don’t like it.”

“Come here,” Michael said and offered his hand to him. Ray stepped towards him instantly, grasping his arm as tightly as before, and he was sickly pale in this winter light, his eyes huge.

“I wanna go home, Michael,” he whined and buried his face in Michael’s shoulder.

Michael could feel him shake and squeezed his hand, hoping to make it at least a little better.

“I know,” he murmured before throwing a helpless look towards Jack.

But Jack just shrugged and slowly walked back to the roofed path. He threw a look at the ceiling before shaking his head and at least the writing wasn’t there anymore.

Which didn’t mean that it wouldn't come back.

For now it was for the best and Michael wondered why it was targeting Ray. Because he was scared the easiest?

Which wasn’t even true, he was pretty certain he would have already crapped his pants by now.

Jack turned around and Michael followed his gaze towards the roses. Yeah, if Jack was right and this was some sort of video game or at least close to it… the next step would be to walk towards the fucking ghost.

He was waiting for a freaking jumpscare and he wasn’t sure if his heart could take that. Also if he even dared to voice this thought, Ray would probably rip his arm right off. He could already feel his fingers tingling from lack of circulation due to Ray’s grip.

But they had to move on at some point.

Ray nuzzled against his shoulder before taking a huge breath. Michael watched as he slowly looked up as if he expected something horrifying to run at them.

Something with long, fragile fingers and moldy teeth.

Ray groaned next to him, and for a moment Michael feared he had somehow summoned that creature, but then Ray pointed to the entrance to the garden.

Something flickered there and even before Michael could really make out the figure, he knew it was the other Ray.

The red cloak was close to brushing the ground as he entered the garden and walked down the path. But it was hard to see, as he was flickering in and out of existence, his colors fading until he was completely gone before reappearing a few steps later.

It was eerie and none of them dared to say a word, fearing the ghost would hear it. Michael knew that it had worked before and he wasn’t sure if he was ready for that. If they really should talk with him.

The other Ray walked past Jack, who carefully took a step away from the path to let him pass. It was surreal, most of all because there was no noise.

Michael could hear his own heart, could hear Ray’s shallow breathing next to him, but the ghost was completely silent.

So the abrupt _bang_ above them made them all jump and turn around. There was a muffled shout of Jack’s name and finally Michael made out a movement behind one of the windows.

“Ryan!” Jack called back and he could see better from his place. Turning towards him, Michael searched for the ghost but he was gone, flickered back into nothing as if they had scared it away.

Above them the window creaked and he pulled Ray towards Jack to watch. And now he could see better.

It wasn’t even a window, it was a glass door to a balcony. Before, when this kingdom had still been thriving and filled with people, it must have been a popular place to watch over the garden.

Ryan threw himself against the door with enough force to make the whole frame rattle and then Gavin appeared next to him.

Michael smiled as he saw both of them fight with the door because he couldn’t make out any bruises or wounds on them. They were okay, and next to him Ray sighed, relieved.

“Geoff is still missing,” Jack said quietly.

“Maybe they know where he is,” Ray offered a bit shyly and a second later the door was thrown open.

Both Ryan and Gavin had thrown themselves against it and now the momentum nearly threw Gavin over the railing. Ryan held him back to keep him from falling, and with labored breaths they grinned down at them.

“Fancy seeing you here!”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we go!
> 
> See you next week on Chapter 5 - Pi Orionis; The Shield!


	5. Pi Orionis - The Shield

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Red Knight, Red King.” He stepped in the Knight’s way. “Dog of the Mad King.”

_Chapter 5_

**Pi Orionis**

_The Shield_

 

“So, we’re basically playing Clue?” Jack asked.

“Cluedo,” Gavin corrected before getting shushed.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Ryan replied. He and Gavin were leaning over the stone railing of the balcony so that they didn’t have to shout. “We’ve got one solid lead, but Gavin and the Prince have their doubts despite the evidence.” He ignored Gavin’s sullen look.

“What’s the lead, then?” asked Ray, raising an eyebrow when Ryan and Gavin glanced uncomfortably at Michael.

Ryan sighed, crossing his arms and looking away. “Well...according to the records we found...the Prince was killed by his version of Michael.”

The effects of his statement were instant. Ray froze, eyes wide as the words sunk in. Michael...killed Gavin? How? Why? That made no sense!

He looked to the others, seeing that Jack’s jaw had dropped and Michael was shaking.

“What the fuck?!” Michael shouted. “If that’s a joke-”  
  
“It’s not,” Gavin said quietly. Ray noticed that he couldn’t quite meet Michael’s eyes. “It said that you confessed… and that they hung you for it.”

Michael’s mouth snapped shut and he grew sickly pale. Ray could literally watch how the color drained from his face as he grimaced as if he had tasted something very foul. He didn’t even talk back which didn’t fit at all, because of course Michael would protest! It was a laughable thought!

But he fell quiet, deep in thought, and so Ray jumped to his rescue. “That’s a load of crap and you guys know it.”  
“That’s what I said as well!” Gavin assured him.

“But for now we have to look at the hints,” Ryan reminded them. “It’s not our Michael. We can’t take this… personally.”

Still, Ray couldn’t help but feel angry about the accusations and he stepped closer to Michael as if his body could stop those words from hurting him somehow.

Gavin seemed also ready to help. “We met a Michael in the dungeons,” he explained. “He was locked in a cell but he wrote on the walls! And he wrote-”  
  
“Innocent,” Ray mumbled, and he had seen that, right? Of course he had. It had appeared above their heads along with his own name. Over and over again, like a call for help, and _it had been._

It had been.

That Michael had tried to make him listen, to get his attention, to tell him that he was innocent. But he hadn’t understood.

And maybe the words hadn’t been directed as much to him as to the ghost of him, wandering this path through the garden. A ghost that also didn’t look up to see the words and how desperate that Michael had to be.

Calling out for them without anyone listening.

It made Ray’s heart ache.

“Yeah,” Gavin mumbled, and their eyes met for a moment.

“He’s innocent,” Ray said and Gavin nodded.

“I know.”

Turning around, Ray threw a look to Michael who was still quiet, still pale. Triella was trying hard to get his attention but didn’t seem to succeed.

Above them he could hear Ryan sigh, probably ready to tell them something about clues and hints and evidence, but Ray didn’t want to listen.

Michael was staring at his feet and didn’t lift his head even when he spoke. Still, they could all make out his voice, here in the winter light.

“I woke up by the gallows.” He swallowed, frowning a little. “There was still a noose hanging there.”

It felt like cold fingers wandering down his spine as Ray heard that. He shook himself but didn’t know what to say, so he just took Michael’s hand and gently squeezed it.

Jack cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Well, if the record says one thing, but this other Michael is so desperate, maybe there’s more to this than we know. Maybe he was forced to confess?”  
  
“That’s what I said!” Gavin exclaimed. “Why would he confess and then take it back?”

“And as I told Gavin, since this world’s Geoff and Jack were in charge of the interrogation, there’s no way he could have been tortured into confessing. They wouldn’t do that.”  
  
Ray frowned. “But you believe Michael would kill Gavin?”  
  
“That’s what I said again!”

Sighing, Ryan shook his head. “Listen, I’m just looking at the facts, okay? We have all the clues we need so I think we should follow them, whether we like what they show or not. But most importantly we should not forget that those people aren’t us.”

Ray figured that was right; it probably wasn’t fair to jump down Ryan’s throat just because they didn’t like what they found. Instead, they should look for more proof so that they could get back home again.

Jack seemed to think the same thing. “We should look around some more. We haven’t found a way in yet but we should try to reunite soon.”  
“Yeah, I’d like to look for Geoff next,” Gavin said. “I hope he didn’t get hurt.”

“Good idea. After we find him we’ll move back to the entrance of the castle. I think we should all be able to find that place.” Ryan said. “Is that alright with you guys?”  
  
“Better than nothing,” Jack agreed, and Ray just waved a little awkwardly as Gavin and Ryan moved back inside. At least now they knew that they weren’t alone and most of them were still alright. He hoped Geoff was as well.

Throwing a look towards Michael next to him, he frowned at the concentrated look on his face. It was obvious that this news was eating away at him, and Triella was brushing around his legs, still trying to get his attention.

“You heard what Ryan said,” Jack said and Michael looked up to him. “Those people aren’t us. You didn’t do anything, Michael.”  
  
“I guess…” he said quietly before shaking his head. “I know that you’re right but it’s… it’s kinda really fucked up to think about, you know?”

“I bet.”  
  
“Let’s search for clues,” Ray offered, and he squeezed Michael’s hand again. “The more we find out, the better. Who knows, maybe you really were innocent!”

Michael at least tried himself on a smile, and Ray figured that was a start.

“Yeah, let’s do that. It’s not like we have anything else to do anyway.”  
  
“Exactly!”

“The other Ray,” Jack began before frowning. “Or rather the Knight. I am sure he has something to do with it. There has to be a clue involving him.”  
  
“He seems to be haunting this place here,” Ray added. “He already walked through here twice. Should we… follow him? Maybe he’ll lead us somewhere?”

“Or we could try to talk to him.”  
  
“But he seemed weak,” Michael said. “And he didn’t make any noises. I’m not sure if we can talk with him.”

“The least we can do is try.”

As it turned out, they didn’t have to wait too long. Ray sat in the grass next to Michael, who was thoughtfully stroking Triella, and couldn't help but wonder why the other him - the Knight - was stuck in this loop. Most likely because of the game, so that they could get the hint he had, much like an NPC.

He also wondered what it had to be like back then. To see so many people around him die, to also kill others.

It was weird to say the least. He couldn’t even begin imagining it.

Jack walked next to the path, up and down and down and up. Too restless to hold still, and Ray found it somehow calming to watch him.

So when the older man stopped, he immediately noticed and turned towards the gate. And sure enough there he stood, flickering and hard to see.

“Michael,” Ray called carefully. Michael turned and saw the Knight as well, but stayed seated. He did tense up though, Ray could feel it.

Jack threw both of them a look, and slowly Ray rose to his feet. Surprisingly, Triella followed him and didn’t stay with Michael, but he didn’t have the time to dwell on it. Stopping next to Jack, he asked, “What now?”  
  
Jack just shook his head, but when the knight walked through the gate into the garden, he was the only one who moved. He stepped onto the path, walked towards the ghost, and Ray couldn’t help but chew on his lip. It didn’t seem reasonable that anything would happen to Jack; the ghost didn’t seem capable of touching or even noticing them.

Still, it was a fucking _ghost!_

“Ray,” Jack called, and even though Ray knew he wasn’t the one he was talking to, couldn’t help but look to him. Jack had stopped walking and was holding his hands out to show he didn’t carry any weapons. It was most likely just a reflex but neither seemed to reach the knight.

“Ray,” Jack tried again. “Can you… hear me? Can you give me some kind of sign?”

Nothing changed and Ray frowned. They had to find a way to communicate with the ghost somehow!

“Ray.” That was Michael, but it still made Ray jump. He hadn’t heard the other move closer, but now he was standing nearly directly behind him.

The ghost just went on his path, and Ray wondered how long he had been wandering this exact way. Since they had appeared here? Since this dimension had been created?

Way longer maybe.

He loved those flowers, those roses, Ray knew that. He wasn’t a gardener himself but he could still tell.

The knight moved past Jack and disappeared before flickering back to existence a few steps later. The brooch holding together his red cloak was a rose. It was beautiful handiwork.

A gift from his King along with the cloak. He treasured it, it was a thing he held dear.

They were still calling his name and now Ray wasn’t even sure which of them they called anymore. He was stepping forward, and tried to ignore Jack’s and Michael’s voices because the knight was looking at him now.

Funny enough, the fear was gone when the ghost appeared, some link to his other self that he couldn’t quite place. He just knew they were doing it wrong, both Jack and Michael. It was the wrong name they used.

“Red Knight,” Ray singsonged. It was a mocking melody, simple like a nursery rhyme, but the song was deeply rooted in his head, somehow. A story to keep the children in the warm house after night fell.

“Red Knight, Red King.” He stepped in the Knight’s way. “Dog of the Mad King.”

He wasn’t sure what happened next. He expected the Knight to walk through him or to collide with him, but neither happened. The Knight looked up, looked him straight in the eyes and Ray could see himself inside. Of course he could, it was him somehow but there was something different there.

 _Do you want the pain to stop?_ they asked. _Where did they go? They are both gone._

It hurt his head and Ray gasped and reached up, tried to keep his head from bursting but then it was gone. Blinking, he looked down at a city. A city bristling with life, drenched in warm hues from the setting sun as the shopkeepers closed their booths after a long day.

He was standing on a higher place, a roof maybe, and the wind was warm and brought the delicious smell of food. He was hungry, but he was still waiting for someone to join them so that they could head down together.

Next to him was someone else, balancing on the edge and Ray’s heart jumped whenever they spun on their toes. They were humming, no, singing quietly in the beginning summer night.

_“You showed me the courage of stars-”_

Ray turned his head, wanted to see who they were, but then he was in the throne room, hunched over Ryan’s side to point something out. The King’s shoulder felt warm under his hand, his shy, clumsy attempt at a joke had ended in a flub, but Ray could feel Gavin’s eyes on him, calling to him in despair, and he looked up.

Looked up and found his friend starring, pale as a sheet and horror started to coil in his stomach as well. Something had happened, something horrible had happened again and he was still working through Geoff’s death, he couldn’t face something else. He couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t-

But Michael was dead.

Michael had fallen in the war even though he had promised to look after himself, even though he had said he wouldn’t, but now he was also dead and gone and out of reach.

And Michael was _dead._

Hadn’t he just waited for him on the roof like always? Hadn’t they just fought with wooden sticks, wishing to fight for this kingdom, ready to prove themselves to Jack.

Eager to die for their King.

And now one of them had.

One of them had gone out and had fallen for their King. It was the wrong king, they had sworn their loyalty to Geoff but things had changed and the world had moved on and here they were.

With Gavin standing in front of him, crumpling the letter in his hand, and he didn’t know how to react. Didn’t know how to react because now he was nearly standing in the same spot as before, staring down to the huge doors that lead to the throne room, and there was Geoff.

Geoff and Jack, and they had returned, and Ray’s heart hurt because he was so happy and so scared as his head had already understood what would happened next, while his soul still refused.

His legs had moved him down the two steps, halfway towards Geoff and Jack but also in front of Ryan to be his King’s shield like he was supposed to. Exactly here he was frozen in place, his mind in turmoil as he waited, hand on the handle of his rapier.

Gavin had already brushed past him and was now throwing his arms around Geoff and Jack. The three embraced each other, he could see how tightly they held onto the others. Grasping hands and murmured words.

They looked like a reunited family and they were.

Ray smiled.

A hand laid on his shoulder and he turned around, finding Ryan standing above him but without his crown. His crown lay on the throne, and in that moment he wasn’t a king anymore. Geoff had so easily stripped him from that title, and maybe because of that the older finally dared to pull Ray close.

Ray let him, surprised but thankful as he nestled against the other and didn’t want to let go. They all didn’t understand. Ryan wasn’t a bad King, wasn’t a bad person. It took time to get behind his shell but sometimes they had talked, late into the night, and Ray had slowly understood.

He knew how much this war weighed on Ryan’s conscience even though he couldn’t properly show it. Not in front of Gavin. Showing weakness in front of Gavin would turn out bad.

That was over now anyway because Ryan’s breath ruffled his hair as he whispered, “You have to look after yourself, Ray. Both yourself and Gavin, you hear me?”  
  
“I will.” What else was he supposed to say?

“Of all the people here… If I had to chose, you would've been the most suited one as a king,” Ryan went on. “You are meant for greatness, my knight.”

A kiss against his hair and then Ryan was gone, his warmth so brief, and Ray was probably meant to say something to him. To assure him everything would be alright, but it was a lie. They both knew it, they all knew it, and Ryan wouldn’t appreciate it.

He let Ryan pass and watched as Geoff also stepped towards them. In the end Ryan didn’t even drew his sword, he kneeled down and lowered his head, ready to take his punishment.

And the next thing he knew, he was running through the seemingly endless corridors of the castle, a nervous anticipation curling in his stomach. Somewhere behind him was Gavin, trying to keep up and asking him to slow down, to wait for him, but right now he couldn’t. He knew the other wouldn’t hold it against him because if Gavin could, he would run ahead as well.

What mattered was that they would reach the courtyard as fast as possible and Ray skidded around the corner. The huge doors were open, letting the cold winter air in, but it was sunny, despite the season. It let Michael’s hair appear more red than it actually was, Mogar, his trustworthy sword, heavy on his shoulder as he stood there, a little lost. There were knights and warriors around him, whispering without talking to him.

Their dead comrade in their midst, like he had followed the Allfather through hell back to their kingdom, and Michael did look healthy. Ray hadn’t expected him to look this healthy after the war and everything but there was not one scratch, not one bruise on him, and still he seemed different.

Scared, yeah, that was the word. Scared to the bone, out of place in the castle that had been his home for years.

“Michael,” Ray cried out and he looked up, finding him. Someone else was in his eyes and still he recognized them. Loyal, warm. Eyes of sunshine.

Michael was lifting his arm as if he wanted to wave at Ray and his face was drawn, his body shaking as if he was close to breaking down.

They crashed together and Michael barely kept them on their feet with the force that Ray threw his arms around him, whispering, “Oh God, oh it’s you. You are here.”

And Michael didn’t even speak, just sobbed quietly as he clung to him, scared because he had walked through hell all alone and now he was back.

Gavin collided with them a second later, Ray could feel his arms curling around the both of them and then his legs.

Ray started to laugh, he couldn’t help himself. Using one arm to hold Gavin up and one to hold Michael close, he laughed.

Michael was crying quietly, trying to hide his face somewhere while Gavin was babbling.

“My boi. You’re home, it’s over. It’s alright now.”

And it really was. They were all back together.

The nightmare was over.

 

Triella’s power painted Michael’s eyes red. The first time Michael had showed them, Ray had held himself back. It didn’t always happen and he was glad for that. He had known about that as well, had seen it with Gavin and his demon. Gavin’s eyes would turn black as the night and Ray didn’t know which of the two was more horrifying.

But if it was the price to get his friends back, Ray was ready to pay it.

Sometimes he just didn’t recognize them beneath.

 

Someone was pounding at his door and it was early morning, waking him from his deep sleep. The light was gray and washed out because of the heavy snow falling outside. It was too early for snow, it was too early for a guard ordering him to the throne room, and that meant that something wasn’t right.

Pulling his cloak on against the cold, Ray hurried through the dimly lit hallways he knew by heart and could see his breath in front of him. Something was wrong, he could feel it as he pushed open the heavy doors and found Geoff sitting on his throne. He had his face in his hands, his crown laying by his feet as if it had fallen off and nobody had cared.

He didn’t look up, he just sat there slumped over in the pale light and Ray jumped when Jack touched his arm. He hadn’t noticed the other man but his eyes were red from crying and Ray stepped away from him, thinking, _“No. Not again. Please, not again.”_

Looking around, Michael wasn’t here and Gavin wasn’t here and his heart sank. They were still waiting for someone, he could feel it and he wasn’t sure for who he hoped to step through the door but then it was Michael.

Michael who’s face was tired from no sleep, probably because of another night shift, and he stopped dead as he entered. His eyes wandering over the people in the throne room and Ray felt how he understood, felt how he understood himself.

They stood in silence as the snow fell outside and he was shaking, the cold settling in his bones.

It took a while until Geoff lifted his head. Looking down at his crown before slowly picking it up. He placed it on his head as he stood upon them, looking like the King he was, and Ray wanted to fall to his knees and bow. Wanted to beg him to not say it, but he didn’t find his voice.

“Gavin died tonight,” Geoff said and he looked worn down. Old and tired and divine. “He was murdered in his sleep.”

In the end, Ray didn’t know exactly what he felt. He observed as Michael broke down, crying and screaming and holding his head. Begging and assuring that he was meant to protect, that he came back to protect and now Jack was sitting next to him, holding him like a child. Calling him lion’s heart and trying to calm him down.

Geoff stood by his throne, observing from above, and when he caught Ray’s eyes he seemed ready to collapse as well.

It wasn’t his place, but when Ray walked up to him to embrace his king, it felt like the only right thing to do.

 

“It was Michael, Ray.”

Jack was standing in front of him, holding him by the arm, and Ray didn’t even realize he was trying to run away. Run away from those words because they were all white noise in his ears.

“He confessed this morning. I am so sorry.”

“Where is he now?” He figured it was himself who asked that. There was no one else around.

“In the dungeons, Ray. We have to… we had to lock him away. He’s a demon. He’s too dangerous… please don’t go near him anymore.”

 

It was easy for him to break into the dungeons, slipping through the guards and hurrying down the dark corridors between cells. He usually would never go against Jack’s wishes or even Geoff’s command - after all now they were the only ones he had left - but he couldn't just not do it.

Something was pulling him to this place, even if it was just the image of Michael sitting down here in the cold, like a common criminal.

And he still didn’t believe it, couldn’t fit Gavin’s murder and Michael together. Michael who was so eager to protect, Michael who was so loyal to the King and his family. Had been since he was a child.

He found Michael’s cell in the back, so that he wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone, to spread his lies as Geoff put it, and gasping for air, Ray stopped in front of it. He wasn’t out of breath because of the run, no. It was the coldness down here, the memories of better times up on the roof that made his heart heavy.

Michael sat by the bars in the little light he had from a torch, but jumped to his feet when he noticed Ray. He quickly hurried into the shadows as if he could hide from him and for a long while Ray just stared at him.

He couldn’t make out Michael’s face but could see that the other was also gasping for breath.

“Michael…” he whispered. “Michael, they say you killed Gavin.” Stepping closer, he curled his fingers around the bars. They were ice cold.

It just wouldn’t stop snowing since-

Michael shuffled further in the darkness until his back hit the stone wall.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said and his voice was rough from underuse. It only had been a few days but he seemed to have spent those in silence. “I don’t want to hurt you too.”

It broke his heart, and Ray clung to the bars to try and keep on his feet. “You would never. You would never lay hand on either of us.”

“But what if I did,” Michael whispered. “What if I did.” His eyes began to glow red in the darkness and Ray could feel how he shook. If it was fear or sadness or both, he didn’t know. He just knew that he would not leave Michael just like this.

Uncurling one of his hand, he reached inside for him. “You’re Michael,” he told him. “You are the sword. You take down any threat before we even notice. Ready to cut through anything as long as it means to protect your King.”

“That’s what I am doing, Ray,” Michael said slowly. “I swore I would take down anything that would be able to hurt any of you. Even if it means to cut through my own throat.”

“They want to hang you!”  
  
“I know.” The red in his eyes faded as he carefully stepped closer, making sure not to get within reach. “I’ve become a demon, Ray. I am sorry. I thought I could… I could control it. I thought I would be strong enough.”

He was now close enough that Ray could at least make out his face, and he looked defeated. He’d never thought to see that look on the proud and victorious warrior of the Ramsey Kingdom.

“Please, I don’t want to hurt you too.”

Ray stared at him and pretended not to notice how weak his legs were becoming, but before he knew it, he was sinking to his knees. Michael… hurting him? Never. In all those years, he had never once feared that.

“You can’t leave me as well,” Ray mumbled. “You can’t just disappear like Gavin did.”  
  
“I made him disappear.”

“No.” He shook his head wildly. He would never believe it! “Tell me what happened, Michael. What happened that night?”

Michael watched him for a while before he also sat down. Pulling his legs against his chest, he looked really small and really scared. He had to be cold, he was just wearing a thin shirt and pants.

“We were on the roof as always,” he began slowly, carefully. “We talked for a while and went to get some food. I wasn’t feeling too well so I went to bed.” He threw a look to Ray, who quickly nodded. That much was true. He had talked with Gavin for a bit longer before parting ways, not knowing it would be the last time they’d see each other.

“I didn’t sleep well. That happened often after… after I came back with Triella. I dream strange things. The same happened with Gavin, you know.”  
  
“He had horrible nightmares as a child,” Ray agreed. “Because he got his demon so young. He could not deal with it. What happened then, Michael?”

“I don’t know…” Michael admitted softly. “I woke up and they ordered me into the throne room. And Gavin was dead.”

They sat a few feet apart from each other on the cold ground, only separated by the bars and Ray’s breath turned into a white mist as he whispered, “That doesn’t mean it was you.”

“Who else could get close enough to him?” Michael asked. “Nobody would ask questions if the King’s personal warrior would check on the Prince. It’s what I do most nights.”  
  
“You went to bed, Michael. You fell asleep. Just because you could have done it, doesn’t mean that you did. You had no reason to do so.”

“Ray… I am not saying that I did it.” Michael scooted closer, his hand reaching out as if he wanted to touch him but didn’t quite dare. “I fear that it was _her.”_  
  
“Triella?”

Michael nodded and his fingers brushed over Ray’s knuckles. They were ice cold and Ray was quick enough to grab them. He curled his own around them, trying to get them to warm up.

“Then your demon should be punished, not you.”  
  
“We are one and the same. I agreed to that in exchange for returning here.” Michael’s eyes were wet as he squeezed his hands. “If I’d known what would happen… I should have stayed dead.”

“No…”

“But then at least Gavin would still be alive. I am so sorry.”

“Michael…” he felt how the other wanted to pull away and held tight.

“I’m sorry, Ray. I’m sorry that I have to leave you alone.”  
  
“I could get you out of here,” Ray could hear himself say. “You know I can. You could flee. I would flee with you, if you want me t-”  
  
“No. I don’t want to risk it,” Michael told him quickly. “I will take my punishment. I’ve decided I will.”

Falling silent, Ray still held his hands. He rubbed over his knuckles, over the back of his hands before pulling them closer and breathing over them.

They were _so cold._

At least the gesture made Michael smile a little, but it was sad. “Promise me something?”

“Everything.”

“Don’t forget that I never wanted this. I didn’t want to hurt Gavin. I never did.”

“I know that.”

“Promise.”

“I promise it, Michael.”

Somewhere a gate was thrown closed and the sudden noise startled both of them. Ray looked down the dark corridors but couldn’t see anyone.

“You gotta go,” Michael whispered. “That is the guard patrolling and you are not allowed to talk to me. Nobody is.”

Go? He couldn’t just go! If he stood up and ran now, he wouldn’t see Michael again. This was their goodbye and he knew that as much as Michael did. Maybe that was why they were still clinging to each other.

“I can’t let go,” Ray said. “I can’t just… leave you here to die.”

“Please do. I ask you as my friend.” Michael squeezed his hands and for the first time since Ray had seen him down here, he seemed sure of himself. “You are the shield, Ray. You are supposed to protect the royal family. Go now and don’t look back. I chose this for myself. It’s the best for everyone.”

Ray quickly shook his head. “It’s not. It can’t be. You will die, Michael. They will hang you!”

“It’s fine, it’s al-”

“It’s not!” He was getting too loud. His time was running out, he could hear steps far away, and in a moment that guard would hear him, he’d have to run.

Michael stared at him and slowly his mask fell, broke apart so easily, and he pressed  his shaking lips together as his eyes grew wet. “Ray… Ray, do you hate me?”

“I could never! I could never hate you, Michael! Even if your hands would wrap around my own throat, I wouldn’t! I swear!”

And now Michael was crying, big tears rolling down his face as he tugged Ray closer to the bars. There wasn’t enough space to hug, but their fingers intertwined and they laid their foreheads against each other, the metal cold against their skin.

“Please be there,” Michael whispered. Even his breath seemed cold. “I want to see one face that doesn’t despise me when I stand there. I want to go brave and without fear, ready to face my punishment. But I can’t… I took their son. Jack’s and Geoff’s son, and I took Gavin’s life, should he await me afterwards.”  
  
“He will know it wasn’t your doing! He will know you would never hurt him!”

“I hope so. God, I pray for it, for his forgiveness, but until then... Please… please be there. I know I will leave you alone but let me be this selfish. I beg yo-”

“Who’s there!” bellowed a voice from afar and Ray squeezed Michael’s hands.

“I will be. I swear. I will be right where you can see me and I will stay until it’s over. Just keep your eyes on me and know that I would never hate you. Know that Gavin will await you and won’t judge. You two will find each other, alright? I promise. I promise on my life, Michael.”

“Thank you…” Michael’s hand slipped from his grip, but Ray managed to hold on to the second one. “You have to go.”

“I know.” There were steps closing in as Ray stood and Michael’s fingers slipped out from his palm.

“I don’t want to let go,” he told him again even though he was doing it. Even though Michael was sitting on the ground beneath him, smiling through his tears.

“Goodbye, Ray.”

Turning on his heels, he didn’t look back just how Michael had wanted to. He ran.

He ran and then got into his room and at the execution he stood next to Geoff.

He was wearing his red cloak and held Michael’s gaze for as long as possible.

Only when Michael swung from the gallows did he dare to blink.

And with that, both of his friends were gone.

He was left alone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finished this story this week and it will have 10 chapters and 50k+ words!
> 
> See you guys next week with Ensis; The Sword!


	6. Ensis - The Sword

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Isn’t that right, Ray?” he asked. “You wanted us to find this. It’s a hint, you want to show us.”

_Chapter 6_

**Ensis**

_The Sword_

  


Michael wasn’t sure what had happened. Ray had called out to the ghost, and then the ghost had stopped and looked at Ray, and then-

He wasn’t sure. The knight had vanished, but Ray hadn’t moved again.

“Ray?” Jack called but Michael was closest to him and reached him first. He was just about to touch him when Ray slowly let his arm sink. It was like he was casting a spell or something because everything seemed to shift and suddenly Michael didn’t dare to touch him anymore.

He had blinked and suddenly Ray was wearing a deep red cloak. Without seeing it, Michael knew that beneath he was hiding his rapier, deadly and sharp and fast.

A weapon that was crusted in blood.

Ray turned around and walked straight past Michael, continuing the path of the Knight. Triella happily trotted next to him, purring loudly as she was allowed to rub against his legs without interruption.

“Red Knight, Red King,” Michael heard Ray hum in his head. “Dog of the Mad King.”

“Is he… using Ray’s body?” Jack asked carefully, and Michael hadn’t even noticed that the older man had come closer.

“I don’t know,” he admitted before slowly following the Knight. “What should we do?”  
  
Jack shrugged, and Michael figured that Ray wasn’t fighting the Knight, at least it didn’t seem like it. It had actually looked like Ray had offered himself to the Knight.

Was this part of the game?

Were they even able to stop them from doing whatever they were doing?

Biting on his lower lip, Michael stayed a few steps behind the Knight as he walked towards the rose bushes.

Maybe they were meant to follow; at least it was easier now without the sudden disappearances and all that.

Just like before when they had walked into the garden, the Knight kneeled in front of the roses, but this time they were closer. This time Michael saw how he began to dig into the soil there and confused he frowned.

“What are you doing, Ray?” he asked. “It’s not the time for gardening around here or some shit like that.”

The knight didn’t react and Michael wondered if he could even hear him. Which really didn’t help them at all. Couldn’t he just tell them?

“He’s not taking care of the plants,” Jack said suddenly and when Michael looked towards him, the other was already kneeling next to Ray. “He’s burying something. He hid something here.”

Reaching out, he didn’t quite dare to actually touch the knight and hesitated. “Isn’t that right, Ray?” he asked. “You wanted us to find this. It’s a hint, you want to show us.”

The knight didn’t speak, but he slowly turned his head towards Jack. They watched each other for a while before the knight leaned back and folded his dirty hands in his lap.

Jack was now shoveling dirt away but the knight was getting up and stood now next to Michael. He turned his head as if he had heard something and Michael recognized this behavior, had seen it when they had first stepped into this garden, but now he was standing in the right place, now the Knight was looking straight at him and he wanted to stop him somehow bu-

“Michael,” the Knight said, and goosebumps broke out over his arms.

Of all the shit that had happened here - this might take the cake.

Maybe because he had seen it coming.

Maybe because he was looking into Ray’s eyes and didn’t recognize his friend.

It surely was him, he looked exactly the same, but something wasn’t right. He hoped he would never see such an expression on him.

Too far gone for him to reach.

The Knight turned away and started to tend to the roses next to him. Michael made sure not to stand in his way.

“A book,” Jack said and his voice startled him. Looking down, he was just in time to see how Jack pulled a dirty book out from beneath the soil. He was brushing it off and Michael quickly sat down next to him to check it out as well.

The binding was brown and worn out, with no title on the cover, but when Jack opened it, they both recognized the handwriting, even if it was neater than usual.

“His diary,” Jack whispered. “He hid his diary. Why?”

“So that nobody could find it,” Michael said. “But he wants us to see it.”  
  
“Yeah, because it’s a hint.” Still none of them were too eager to look through something so personal and after some hesitation, Jack handed it to Michael.

“He would probably be more comfortable with you looking through it.”

The Knight had said his name, that much was true. Maybe it was meant to be for him.

He took the book from Jack, weighted it in his hands before flipping through the pages. Pages upon pages, and he’d never expected Ray to be one to actually go through with writing a diary, but here they were.

Something slid from between the pages and he quickly caught it. It was a pressed flower, maybe used as a bookmark, and Michael carefully opened that page.

A forget-me-not.

Fragile but pretty with its blue little petals. How strange, he’d somehow figured it would be a rose. But maybe it was more meant as a message, to be taken literal.

Blowing some dirt from the page, he read quietly, _“Geoff has returned and slayed Ryan, reclaiming his place as the true king. The Allfather. I can hardly remember the last time I saw Gavin so happy._

_There’s going to be a festival in honor of Geoff’s return, so I’ll be busy making sure the knights are ready and at their proper posts while I’m with Geoff and Gavin._

_I...I am not sure how I feel about Ryan being dead. He killed my king, but I know he cared for me. And I...despite everything, I cared for him as well. The way he looked at me as he kneeled there, waiting for Geoff to behead him...It makes me wish I had done something to help him. Not attacked Geoff. Never. But perhaps I could have had him banished instead._

_I can’t dwell on it. It is too late now.”_

_Dog of the Mad King._ It was Ray’s voice, singing it mockingly.

Throwing a quick glance to Jack, the older shrugged, “At least we know we’re at the right time.”

That much was true, Gavin was obviously still alive here but Ryan… Ryan was dead.

“This is really fucked up,” Michael mumbled. “Geoff killed Ryan.”  
  
“After Ryan killed Geoff,” Jack reminded him as if that would make it better in the slightest.

Biting his lip, Michael turned the page and read, _“Michael is back! He came back to us! I can barely write this as my hand is shaking so much!”_

He couldn’t help himself but smile at the childish excitement Ray displayed here.

_“Today Michael returned. I couldn’t hold myself back and ran to meet him at the gate, dignity be damned. I don’t know how long Gavin and I just stood there, holding him._

_I’m writing this on the roof now, leaning on one of his shoulders as Gavin leans on the other. His arms are around us and make us feel safe, something I feared would never happen again._

_Our Michael has returned, and maybe now things will finally be alright.”_

But they weren’t. At least not for long, but in that moment it had appeared that way. Looking up, Michael found the knight pulling weeds from in between the rose bushes and he briefly wondered in which time he was stuck.

He didn’t look all too happy.

Triella sat down next to him, brushing against his leg, and that pulled his attention back to the diary.

_“It has been a few weeks, but it almost feels like things have gone back to how they were before Ryan. Almost. Gavin decided to keep his place as Prince even though Geoff is back. I guess he feels more confident about inheriting the throne now. Geoff practically burst with pride when Gavin announced it, and I felt the same. He is a lot stronger than he realizes, and I don’t know how I would have held it together without him while Michael was gone…”_

“So Gavin wasn’t the official Prince while Geoff reigned,” Jack said when Michael paused. “It’s a smart decision.”  
“What do you mean?”

“Ryan came for the crown and killed the King. The next in line for the throne would have been Gavin then,” Jack explained.

“So he would have killed Gavin next.”  
  
“Exactly. Gavin probably survived because Ryan didn’t know.”

Michael nodded slowly before continuing, _“The Nether changes people. I knew that as soon as I saw Michael’s demon and his red eyes, but it’s more than that. He seems even more hot-tempered than before, especially when it comes to Gavin and I. We have all been extremely close since childhood, but now, he becomes irritable if we are away from him for more than a few hours at a time. His...demon, Triella…”_

Michael trailed off to throw a short glance to the cat next to him. He couldn’t really pretend to be surprised; deep down inside he had known that. Had known that there was a special connection, had known that Triella was following him for a reason.

The same reason he had known her name instantly.

_“His...demon, Triella, will put shields around us to keep us close to him and to keep others away. Gavin and I have spoken about it, but we don’t know what to do or if we should do anything at all. Michael is still the man we know and love, he is just...rougher.”_

“Michael,” Jack called sharply and it was enough to make him look up even though he had stumbled over those few sentences. His hairs were standing on edge again because that didn’t sound… good. No, not good at all.

It sounded possessive.

But now Jack was getting to his feet, and when Michael saw the Knight moving away, he quickly followed.

The roses seemed forgotten, and with hands brushing over some other flowers, the knight was moving out to the other entrance of the garden.

“Should we stop him?” Michael asked before placing the flower back into the diary.

“I am not sure if we can.”

Triella raced off, joining the knight now and slowly they followed as well.

“You think he will take us to another hint?”  
  
“It could be. He’s obviously not done.” Jack shrugged a bit helplessly. “I just hope our Ray is alright…”

“Yeah…”  
  
“Let’s keep an eye on him.”

Michael nodded quickly. It would be really bad to have the knight wander off with Ray’s body but Triella didn’t seem too concerned, and even though Michael wasn’t sure if he could trust her judgement, for now he did.

They left the garden and followed another roofed pathway, but soon enough they went through a side door and climbing stairs, higher up and actually inside the castle, but they stayed on the outer wall, not going in deeper.

At least it was good that they found a way inside - or at least the Knight did.

Turning his attention back to the diary, Michael searched for the bookmark again before reading on.

_“Geoff is different too, but not in the same way. He resisted the demons, the only known person to do so (and the one we all knew would be able to), and he was branded for it. His arms are covered in marks that repel monsters, and he seems...sharper? His eyes are not as soft, and he often seems on edge, despite things being peaceful again. I don’t know how many others outside of his inner circle have noticed. Geoff has always been good at putting on a mask for the people._

_We can’t expect them to be the exactly the same after going through hell.”_

So no demon for Geoff then?

Thoughtfully, Michael turned the page and frowned at the short entry that followed. It seemed out of character, because it was just three lines.

But they were more than enough.

_“Today I woke up to snow._

_Snow is unusual at this time of the year. It’s really cold._

_They found Gavin dead in his chamber.”_

Fuck, okay. Here we go.

He couldn’t quite dare himself to read on, could feel something nasty curl in his stomach from those words alone, and when he looked up to check where they were going, he wasn’t even surprised.

Outside it had started to snow.

And it was falling upwards.

He didn’t ask if Jack could see it as well; he feared the answer. He figured the knight could. But maybe not. Maybe it was just reserved for him.

For him and Gavin.

Suddenly he was sure of that.

He turned away from the snow, fearing it would pull him down deeper and returned his attention to the diary instead.

_“Michael and I are huddled together in my room. We haven’t left each other alone since Geoff told us that…_

_That Gavin is dead. Our best friend is gone. Just like that._

_Geoff doesn’t even want us to see him. Says we shouldn’t have to experience that._

_I wanted to argue, but Michael told me to calm down and led me away. He reminded me that we lost our friend, but Geoff lost his son. I...I can’t imagine what it’s like for him._

_Jack came in earlier. He brought us food and hugged us. None of us said a word._

_There are no words needed._

_The funeral is tomorrow.”_

He wondered what it was like. To know that someone had killed their friend and to be helpless to do anything about it. The subtle horror that the murderer was still out there, but the overpowering numbness, the fear of moving on.

It had to be horrifying, even more so after they were just about to piece everything back together.

And it wasn’t even the end, right?

Looking up, the red cloak of the Knight showed them the way, and slowly he began to understand his expression. Thinking back to the gallows, he knew fully well what would happen next, and maybe because of that he didn’t quite dare to read further.

Maybe he should give the diary to Jack, but the older had been right - Ray had wanted him to read it.

Still, he closed the diary now, the little flower back at its place as the knight took a left turn. They were moving outside again but they were higher up now. Had they walked up stairs while he had been reading? It seemed so, because now they were stepping on a roof, and as he realized that, Michael couldn’t bring his feet to follow anymore.

He stopped at the edge as a terrible déjà vu came over him that he couldn’t shake off. The knight moved on, towards the edge to sit down and Jack followed behind.

Triella was the only one who noticed his hesitation and came back to him to wait by his feet.

It was strange; it was as if he knew this place even though he had never been here. It seemed obvious why, but he hadn’t felt the way in the garden or around the castle. Here though, he could see through the fog trapping them here.

It was strange, he still knew of course that the fog was there, but upon stepping on the roof it seemed more like a veil.

It took him a moment to realize it was a memory.

He could see over the city beneath, how the evening sun painted it gold. Ray was laying on his back, letting the warmth soak through him and his cloak looked like spilled blood. Gavin was sitting next to him, the scarf emerald as he talked.

They were waiting for him, they always were.

But that wasn’t everything he saw.

He could also see the roof empty and abandoned in the middle of the night. Could feel how it tore at his insides to know that both of them were gone and he didn’t know how to take them back.

They had left them alone on the roof.

There was still more. If he concentrated he could see destroyed cities beyond, too modern to fit into this time and bombed to the ground. Smoke rose to paint the clouds gray but as he followed it with his eyes, he found the sky clear.

It was night and the stars were bright and someone had taught him about them. In one time he hadn’t been able to see them before, in another he had never been allowed to lay on his back and look up.

They were on a blanket, Ray and Gavin on both of his sides and there was something in his hand. A toy spaceship.

“Reality is thin here,” a voice said, and it wasn’t the voice who told him Triella’s name, but the voice who told him to not watch the snow. “Don’t look too deep.”  
  
He tried to nod but couldn’t quite avert his eyes. Only when someone shook him did he blink, and had to squint because the fog around them was so bright.

“Michael?”  
That was Jack, who had a hand clamped around his arm, and Michael stared at him before throwing a look over his shoulder to search for the voice. It wasn’t there, of course not.

He hadn’t expected it to be.

“Sorry,” he mumbled and saw that the diary was laying at his feet. Triella sniffed it before he took it away. “I just got a bit… overwhelmed.”

Not the best word for it but the only one he knew. Jack didn’t quite believe him, which was fair enough, but Michael just went on and actually stepped on the roof now.

The Knight seemed to be waiting for something or just enjoying the view he had without the fog. He stood still and Michael stopped a few steps behind him before turning around.

Jack still threw him some worried looks but he ignored them in favor of opening the diary again.

And sure enough, he found what he had waited for.

_“I don’t understand! Geoff accused Michael of killing Gavin! But how could he? He was his best friend! Why would he kill him? Even with Michael having a demon, I don’t understand!_

_Michael has been thrown into the dungeon and Jack said I am not allowed to see him in case he tries to kill me as well. But I can’t not speak to him about this, not when I have already been barred from attending the trial because Geoff didn’t want me to have to “witness his lies”. But Geoff also said he confessed, so what would he be lying about?_

_Michael loved Gavin and would never hurt him, would never hurt either of us. After everything, how am I supposed to believe that Michael and his demon wanted to kill us rather than protect us?_

_I don’t understand…”_

Had he really killed Gavin? He knew nothing about his other self and didn’t share Ray’s and Gavin’s trust in him. What he knew was that he had contracted a demon that had changed him.

Throwing a look to Triella, he was surprised to find her still sitting at the edge of the roof, looking back down the hallway. Again she was seeing someone he did not, and slowly but surely he figured out who it was.

Turning back to the book, he continued.

_“I finally had a free day today, and I used it to sneak down to the dungeon and talk to Michael. We were so relieved to see each other, but now I’m confused. Michael was afraid to approach me because he did not want to hurt me. Why?_

_He can’t have...He wouldn’t have killed Gavin! His demon could have done it, it’s just a demon. But Michael himself shouldn’t be punished!_

_When he finally held my hand through the bars, he told me he didn’t do it. That it was Triella. Even though he confessed before, I believe him. I have to believe him. He’s Michael!_

_We both cried as he kept telling me he didn’t do it. I didn’t want to leave him, but I don’t know what would happen if Jack found me with him._

_I just held his hand tighter._

_I didn’t want to let go._

_I didn’t want to let go._

I didn’t want to let go!

_But I did.”_

Shivering, he threw a gaze towards the knight who still watched over the kingdom below them. He could already see the next entry. Three short lines again just like before. He knew what would come next, exactly how the knight had as well.

_“Michael is dead. I had to watch as he swung from the gallows. Just a few hours ago, he was alive, and now he is...gone. And he won’t come back this time. I won’t see Gavin or Michael ever again… They’ve left me alone.”_

“I’m sorry,” Michael whispered and wondered if it reached the other. Probably not, he was trapped in this loop, and he expected him to disappear and leave their Ray behind so that he could begin his walk through the garden anew. “I am very sorry for what happened.”

The knight actually moved, but only to reach up and touch his rose brooch. He couldn’t hear him, and nearly absentmindedly Michael turned the page. He hadn’t actually expected another entry, figured this was the end to the story he was supposed to know, but what he saw disturbed him.

The neat words were gone and even though it started with scribbles, it developed into nearly unreadable words. They were full of hate or hurt, two emotions that usually went hand in hand, and the knight had written them with vigor so that some even slashed through the thin paper.

_“Bring them back.”_

_“How dare they leave me!”_

_“I hate them all. They are better off dead anyway!”_

_“I want this pain to stop.”_

“It wasn’t Michael, I refuse to believe it.”  
_  
_ “Who killed poor Gavin?”

_“BRING THEM BACK.”_

The words carried over pages upon pages and with a morbid fascination, Michael skipped through them. They were ripped at the edges, ink soaking through them a stark contrast to the tidy entries before.

He had lost his mind, Michael realized. By God, the knight had lost his mind in grief.

“Jesus Christ,” Jack whispered and Michael looked up. The elder couldn't see the diary and he wasn’t even checking on it, he was looking at the floor.

The diary slipped from Michael’s fingers and showed one last entry towards the end of the book. This one was neat, just like those before as if the weeks in between hadn’t happened, but he couldn’t bother to read it.

The floor was littered with words, with Ray’s name. Black, bold letters over and over, not unlike they had been in Ray’s diary. It wasn’t Ray, Michael recognized his own handwriting when he saw it. He should have way before.

His ghost was also somewhere in here, and he saw Triella back in the hallway, knew that she was purring.

There were new words, written right in front of his feet and those were red. Angry letters.

_“Save him”_

_“Protect them”_

“I try,” Michael whispered but the words got stuck in his throat. The knight finally stood, took one step and then another and walked right off the roof.

Michael’s heart simply stopped. For a fraction the shock nearly choked him and all he could see was the knight, arms outstretched as if he thought he would just fly but he didn’t.

Maybe only thanks to the warning, Michael managed to reach out and grabbed the red cloak. It didn’t matter anyway because his fingers went right through the fabric because it wasn’t really there. Just a memory of another time but this was Ray’s body!

It was Jack who managed to reach his collar and with a jerk Ray still fell. And it was too late, Michael couldn't move because they couldn’t reach him anymore and it all happened too damn fast but then he realized it was the knight falling. Ray made a choking noise as his shirt cut into his throat, threatening to rip.

“Michael!” Jack grunted with the strain of holding the boy up and he jumped into motion. Dropping to his knees, he wrapped an arm around Ray’s middle and pulled.

It was strong enough that Jack fell to the ground but he just dragged Ray closer until he had secured him in his lap. Michael wished he could follow, but he couldn’t stop staring down into the courtyard beneath where the knight’s body hit the ground with a sickening _crack_.

And then it just laid there, unmoving and he couldn’t stop staring. He felt how his heart beat in his throat, his his arms shook as he leaned on them to look down, and he feared he would follow in the next second. But then the body vanished, off to begin its loop anew, and he felt ready to throw up.

The shock, the sickness had settled deep in his stomach but then someone gasped for breath behind him.

It was Ray, his eyes wide and scared as he scrambled away from the edge, hiding in Jack’s embrace.

“Oh God, oh God,” he muttered and reached up. He didn’t seem to notice that tears were streaming down his ashen face as he checked on his body, making sure it was still intact, still his. That it didn’t lay broken in the courtyard down there.

Michael couldn’t help but stare at him and he slowly felt the horror catch up. Jack seemed to feel the same because he held Ray so tight that it had to hurt as if he had to make sure he had really caught him, that he really held him right now.

They watched each other in shock as Ray gasped and cried. It took some time before Jack was able to move and leaned his head against Ray’s, rocking him slowly, and that made Michael move as well.

One of them had to have kicked the diary in the chaos, but it was still close enough to read that one last entry.

_“I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. All I have left are the roses, but now someone else will have to take care of them._

_I’m going to see Gavin and Michael again soon.”_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, the poor babies... I hope you enjoyed this, though! 
> 
> Next week is Chapter 7 - Leo Minor; Little Lion! 
> 
> Love, catboysam


	7. Leo Minor - Little Lion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He still wasn’t sure if he could trust this creature and for all the Prince’s big talk, he still wasn’t stepping closer to Michael.  
> Geoff could see that it pained him, this indecisiveness.

_ Chapter 7 _

**Leo Minor**

_ Little Lion _

  
  


Once again Geoff followed the Prince through this castle. That was becoming a trend of some sort, but it was probably for the best. He wouldn’t find his own way in this place, even if it had been his in another life.

At least the Prince wasn’t running away anymore; he kept close enough that their hands sometimes brushed against each other. Geoff kinda expected him to take it soon.

Instead the younger stopped in his tracks and looked back down the way they had just come. Looking over his shoulder, Geoff couldn’t make out what he saw, but as it turned out it was rather something he heard.

“Ryan and the other me are down in the dungeons,” the Prince said. “They are both alive.” An ugly little grin found its way to his face. “Haywood is hurt.”

Geoff didn’t share his joy. “Where? Is it bad?”  
  
“No, no. Just a bruise unfortunately. They’re already moving around.”

“How do you know?”

“The Lightbringer found them,” the Prince told him. “It’s guiding them to safety right now and-” He hesitated, frowned a little, and then smiled brightly. “They found the others! Ray and Michael and Jack! No one is hurt!”  
  
“Oh thank God…” Geoff mumbled and felt a heavy weight lift from his shoulders. “Oh, that’s really good. That’s fantastic. Let’s join them.”

“They can’t reach each other like this but they want to meet up in the entrance hall. The Lightbringer and Triella are with them and will guide them. We should head there.”  
  
Geoff nodded, but couldn’t help but frown. So Michael’s demon - Triella - was with them and what had the Prince said? It had changed Michael, had made him possessive.

“You sure they are safe with Triella?” he couldn’t help but ask as they began walking again.

“Of course,” the Prince assured him quickly. “Triella is meant to protect.”

He could just hope he was right, but Geoff didn’t like the thought of putting their trust in a demon. Even though the Lightbringer seemed harmless it was still  _ a fucking demon! _

They were literally in between ghosts and demons and he really hadn’t seen this situation coming.

“Can demons take over people?” he found himself asking. It was interesting in it’s own right, he couldn’t deny that.

“Of course they can. They are extremely powerful!”

“Did it ever happen to you?”

For a while the Prince moved on in silence, playing with the ends of his scarf before sighing. “Actually it happened to me quite a lot. It took me years to get some form of control over it, but I guess that was part of making a contract so young.”

“Years? When did you get your demon?”

“I was seven years old,” the Prince told him. He threw him a look and the expression on his face was torn between amusement and hurt, like he wanted to laugh at Geoff for not remembering, but also realizing why it was like that.

“What were you doing in the Nether so young?” Geoff asked quietly.

“Being dead, I guess.” It was supposed to sound like a joke but it didn’t quite work. “I died once before and made it out. It was quite a… scandal, I think. Even though it may sound like it, it’s not common for someone to walk back out of the Nether. Barely anyone manages to. I of course believed in you and in Michael as well. You were both so strong.”  
  
“But you were a child,” Geoff said carefully. “What was a child doing in the Nether? How did you die?”

“I don’t know,” the Prince admitted. “I could have been sick, maybe? Or someone just didn’t want me.” He tried to laugh it off but didn’t quite succeed. “At least it brought me here. You took me in together with Jack. First to find out how I could survive and learn more about the Nether, but even though I couldn’t help them at all… they kept me. Even when I was just a scared little child, they let me stay.”

“They took you in as their son,” Geoff mumbled. “Gave you clothes and food and later my name and your title.”

“Yeah.” The Prince turned to smile at him. It was a bit shier than he was used to, but he returned it. Now his hand found his. “Thank you so much for that,” he said, and this time Geoff couldn’t find it in him to correct him.

By now he wasn’t even sure if it made any sense. The Prince seemed to fight the knowledge that this all was an illusion, wasn’t real. That it would vanish soon enough.

“I am sorry,” he finally said. “I am sorry for what happened to you, Gavin.”

The green eyes observed him for a while before the Prince sighed. “Can I ask you something?”  
  
“Go ahead.”  
  
“Do you believe we can change our destiny, Geoff? Or was I supposed to die as a child? Did I just prolong my life for some years but never really stood a chance?”

“I don’t know, Gavin.” He squeezed his hand. “But I like to believe that we can chose our own path, and just because some outcomes might be similar, doesn’t mean that it was a wrong one.”

“But maybe I made everything worse,” the Prince said carefully. “Michael… was hanged. If I had never come back, he surely would still be alive. If I had never come back… he wouldn’t have killed me.” He frowned but shook his head. “But that’s stupid. He’d never. I just can’t… believe it but there are just so many thoughts running through my head. So many possibilities.”

“We’ll find out what happened,” Geoff said. “And then you can rest.”  
  
“I don’t want to rest. I want to stay. I want to go back!”

“Maybe you can.”

The Prince shook his head. “I know that I can’t. I know that I… that this whole deal is a mistake. A horrible, horrible mistake.” He smiled unamusedly. “You know demons… demons are sly and manipulative. And they like to play. God, they surely like to play.”

He wasn’t sure what to answer to that, and the Prince also stayed quiet as they moved on. Still, he didn’t let go.

It took them a few minutes until they came close to the entrance hall but it was easy to find. The huge windows let in the winter light that showed them the way, and soon enough they found a railing, allowing them to look into the entrance hall.

A massive stone staircase lead down to the gigantic doors and they sat down on the steps, waiting for the others. According to the Prince, Ryan and Gavin were still a bit away but on the right track, but it was Jack who walked out of one of the corridors first. Geoff hadn’t even noticed him before the Prince jumped to his feet, calling his name. It echoed in the empty space and Jack looked up, something tired and confused on his face, but when the Prince crashed into him he caught him so easily, as if he had expected it to happen, and when the Prince squealed happily, Jack pulled him in, one hand in his hair, the other between his shoulders and holding him tight. 

He knew what was going on, Geoff thought. Jack had understood what happened here on a deeper level than if Gavin or Ryan had just told him. 

He could also hear the castle whisper to him. 

As the two continued to hug, Jack’s clothing changed as Geoff’s own had before. His t-shirt was now a green silk coat, jeans red trousers tucked into tall black boots.

“Hey there, Buddy,” Jack said, and the Prince laughed.

“I missed you, Jack! I’m so happy to see you!” 

Geoff caught Jack’s eyes and also stood, walking towards them. He didn’t even reach them before he saw Ray and Michael come out of the corridor as well. True, he had expected that, after all the Prince had told him that they traveled together, but he hadn’t been prepared for how wrecked they looked. Where Michael was pale, a hand clamped around Ray’s arm, the younger looked sick. Ray’s eyes were red rimmed from crying as he leaned against Michael.

Something had happened and it had been bad.

Geoff had the strong urge to walk over there and make sure they were unharmed, but the two had stopped now. The Prince also let his arms sink and stepped away from Jack to stare at them, the older man’s clothing returning to normal.

It was a strange tension between those three, and Geoff could tell that the Prince was torn apart between greeting them in an embrace but also being wary of Michael’s presence. For all his big talk of not believing that it had been him, he was starting to doubt it now.

In the end it was Ray who carefully pried himself from Michael to walk towards the Prince. They met halfway, throwing their arms around each other and then stood in silence.

It only took a few breathless moments until Geoff could see a red cloak appear around Ray, and he knew that the Prince was altering time again to his liking. Creating his own twisted vision. As Geoff stepped closer, Ray heard him and looked up from where he had nuzzled into the other’s shoulder.

With one last squeeze he freed himself from the Prince and quickly stepped towards Geoff to embrace him as well.

The lean body was shaking beneath his touch, the cloak had already vanished, and Geoff grasped him tightly to keep him warm.

“I felt them die,” Ray whispered. He stood on his tiptoes so that he could say it right in his ear and nobody else could hear it. “First Ryan and then Gavin. I watched Michael hang and in the end…” He trailed off, hiding his face in the crook of Geoff’s neck, butting his head right beneath his chin.

“I’m sorry,” Geoff mumbled and let him grasp and tear to get closer. 

“I want to go home, Geoff.”

“Soon enough, bud.” He rubbed his shoulders, hoping to get him to calm down while he watched the others.

Michael was still standing in place, and now a cat-like creature was sitting by his feet. Triella, his demon, Geoff realized. He still wasn’t sure if he could trust this creature and for all the Prince’s big talk, he still wasn’t stepping closer to Michael.

Geoff could see that it pained him, this indecisiveness. The urge to paint this whole situation into a memory, into his new reality, but also knowing that it wasn’t right. That most likely someone in this room had killed him, and his denial didn’t reach so far that he wasn’t aware of that.

In the end the Prince turned around as if to look for help, but when Geoff followed his eyes, he found the Lightbringer fluttering towards him.

If anything Ryan and Gavin appearing made everything just worse and the Prince bit his lip.

Geoff was just happy to see them unharmed and jostled Ray a bit. “Take a look, they’re both alright.”

Lifting his head, Ray really seemed to relax and actually smiled shyly upon seeing them.

Ryan even waved awkwardly right before Triella ran at them. It was Gavin who crouched down to pet her thoroughly, apparently excited to see a kitty even if it was such a strange one.

“Seems like we’re all back together,” Geoff said and left one arm wrapped around Ray’s shoulders. “And in one piece. Can’t say I’m not impressed.”

“Now we just have to solve this thing,” Ryan said as he reached them and was instantly shut down by the Prince.

“It wasn’t Michael!”

“How about we just look at it from a different perspective,” Geoff quickly interfered. He was getting tired of the childish behavior of those two. “I’m sure we all gathered some hints. Check on everything. Almost all of us apparently died here at some point, so maybe that’s also a clue?”

The Prince nodded quickly, but as if Geoff’s words had made something click, it was Jack who turned to him. “That’s a good point. Gavin, can you tell me where your Ryan died?”

“Of course. He was beheaded in the throne room.” The Prince couldn’t help but throw a triumphant look to Ryan. “I remember it quite well.”

“Okay. Ryan, where did you wake up here?” Jack continued.

“In the throne room.”

Geoff could hear Ray’s breath hitch but before he could take a look at him, Michael stepped closer. “That’s brilliant!”

“I don’t think I understa-”

“The other Michael was hanged,” Jack explained. “And so our Michael woke by the gallows. Ryan also woke up where his alter ego died and Ra-”

“Wait,” Gavin interrupted them. He stood again, ignoring Triella’s whining meows as he looked at Ryan. “What did the reports say about me?”

Ryan seemed to think for a moment but Geoff remembered it faster. “They said that Prince Ramsey was found in his chamber. Why?”   
Gavin threw a look to his doppelgänger. “Did you move me?”

The Prince stared at him, eyes wide and Geoff could see the cogs turning.

“Yes,” he finally said. “I moved you from my chamber.”  
  
“You’re lying,” Gavin told him. “You did not.”  
  
“I did.”  
  
“Why would you?”

The Prince opened his mouth but nothing came out. He just retreated as Gavin stepped towards him.

“I didn’t wake up in your chamber. I woke up in Geoff’s room, that’s what you said yourself.”

Geoff stiffened and felt how his heart sunk. That couldn’t mean-

The Prince seemed to come to the same conclusion and he just stood there, frozen.

“I woke in the King’s private chamber,” Gavin said. “Why would Michael kill me there? I bet this place was heavily guarded. Why take that risk?”

The Prince just shook his head and retreated further. In the end it seemed ironic when it was Ryan who stopped Gavin from getting closer. “Wait,” he said. “If it’s true and you were killed in the king’s private chamber… who said you were the target?”

Geoff couldn’t help but stare at him and knew that the others were as well. But it did make too much sense not to consider.

“Why kill the Prince when you can kill the King?” he said slowly. “That would make Gavin collateral damage.”

“Not necessarily,” Ray said quietly, and Geoff was a bit surprised to hear him. He was still pale but locked eyes with the Prince. “ _ The one who kills the King shall become the King, _ right? That’s the rule, that’s how Ryan became a King in the first place.” He continued when the Prince nodded. “But that was before you were the official heir.”

“That’s right,” Michael threw in. “It said in the diary that Prince Ramsey accepted his title! What if someone wanted to kill both of you to get the crown but didn’t get Geoff?”

“But in the King’s chamber? That’s one risky move,” Ryan threw in, and Geoff turned towards the Prince.

“Gavin,” he called him and he stared at him with big eyes. He looked just like an animal backed into a corner, and it had to be a lot to take in, but they had to be onto something. “Who was allowed in the King’s private chamber? It couldn't have been a lot of people.”

The Prince hesitated, before shaking his head slightly. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Michael laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Was I allowed inside the chamber?” he asked.

“No,” the Prince whispered carefully. “You and the other guards were stationed outside and weren’t suppose to enter if the King didn’t allow them entrance.”

A nervous smile appeared on Michael’s face. “Could I have sneaked in somehow and get back out without anyone noticing?”

“I don’t… I don’t think so. There were always guards there, at least three. You’d have to kill them to get into the chamber but even then… I don’t even have the key. Someone had to be inside with me.” The Prince fell silent before smiling back. “It couldn’t have been you, boi. I knew it.”

Michael laughed once, a loud and shaky sound before he pulled the Prince into a hug. The younger didn’t respond, but let him, and Geoff knew that he was already one step further and again he asked, “Gavin, who was allowed in my chamber? Who had the key?”

The Prince didn’t answer, but seemed ready to try and hide his face in Michael’s shoulder.

“Surely I had one,” Geoff pushed on. “I am just asking if there would be anyone else.”

He didn’t want to say it, Geoff could see him squirm and nearly pull Michael back as he let go of him. But of course he didn’t want to tell them, not that he really had to. After all the reports had been faked, a scapegoat had been found, and there weren’t  a lot of people with that kind of power.

In the end it was the Prince’s eyes that answered. They darted towards Jack before quickly looking back at the floor as if he expected punishment.

Geoff slowly breathed out. “Me and Jack, okay,” he said, and felt a low churning anger in his guts. He and Jack threw each other a quick look and he saw that the other had also figured it out.

If King Ramsey had really been the target along or without the Prince, it had to be Jack. Jack who could enter the room, Jack who had enough power to change up the reports.

As the counselor he was trusted by both the King and the Prince. Of course he was.

Geoff remember too well how the Prince had hugged him just minutes ago, how apparently Jack had been as much as a father to him as the King.

What would be the reason? To get the crown?

And was it even the right conclusion? It could have also been the King, but that seemed even more unreasonable.

He already had the crown, he was back to his old glory!

Why kill his heir?

The same questions seemed to run though the Prince’s head. He was pale, shaking next to Michael. What could they possibly say to calm him down and look at this reasonably? 

Maybe there wasn’t even a way. If he had been in denial over Michael, how were they supposed to get that through to him?

Ray next to him shifted nervously and he let him go, too focused on the Prince. He could literally watch as the shock settled in.

Only when he heard the soft whisper, he looked up. It was Ryan who said, “What the fuck is that…”   
Gavin was standing next to him, also staring at something behind Geoff and finally he turned around. He found Ray also watching one of the hallways and even though everything here was bright thanks to the huge windows, it was like looking into a dark hole.

His first thought was that the Prince was losing control again. Which, now that he thought about it, could be a real problem. At least this time they were all close to him, but that wouldn’t mean a lot if the castle completely collapsed onto their heads.

Only at a second glance Geoff realized that it wasn’t shadows. It was words that painted the hallway black. Big drawn letters, overlapping each other so that they were unrecognizable, and he shivered as he saw them.

“We have to tell him,” Ray said, but when Geoff checked on him, he was looking at the Prince. “He won’t be able to rest otherwise,” Ray insisted, and slowly the Prince nodded.

“What are you talking abo-” Geoff began, but neither of them listened. Ray turned on his heels and headed off even before Geoff could grasp him, the Prince right behind him.

“Wait!” he called, but it was too late. Both of them headed right into the dark hallway as if that wasn’t creepy as fuck. Geoff moved to catch up with them but Triella darted between his legs and followed them along. Michael took the chance to overtake him but hit something with a surprised gasp. 

Reaching out, Geoff found a barrier in front of him as well. Invisible but clearly there, cutting them off.

Michael was already banging against it, crying out, “Triella! Stop! Let me through!”

But if the demon heard them, she didn’t react.

For now they were split apart.

 

* * *

 

The only thing Ray could hear were their footsteps, as if the words around him were swallowing everything else besides that and the harsh heartbeat in his chest. There were still more coming, new letters but still the same three. He could see in the corner of his eye how they filled the last spaces.

They passed a window that let the winter light in, but already was his name written over the glass, keeping out the light. Now it got really dark, but before Ray could say a thing, a little bird fluttered by him.

Each feather made of flames brightened everything around them.

The Prince - Gavin - was behind him, and it had felt good to see him. It was strange, but he had felt the pain, the scar of losing him even though he had never been his. The Knight had passed it on with his memories.

The pain and fear and despair.

That one deep breath before stepping off the roof.

It had all been there, crystal clear for him, and of course it had rattled him. He had felt himself jump and die. But maybe this was exactly why he was doing this right here. Because he had seen Michael hang. He had held his hands through the bars. True, it hadn't been his Michael but that didn't matter.

It was a Michael and he had taken care of the other Ray. No matter what, he didn't deserve this.

Triella overtook him before vanishing and Ray would have nearly missed the dark corner if red eyes hadn't lit up. Coming to an abrupt stop, he tried to catch his breath as the Prince finally reached him.

They both stood next to each other, gasping quietly, and it was Gavin who whined, "Oh dear God..."

In the corner sat Michael, barely more than a cowering child with his legs pulled against his chest and his arms wrapped around his head. Between his arms, his eyes shone red and he was flickering and twitching just like the knight had. Here it was pitch black with sentences and words and  _ I N N O C E N T. _

"Michael," Ray called carefully and he lifted his head a little. The red gleam vanished as every word twisted into Ray's name.

He guess that was his answer. Slowly, he sat down in front of the warrior and they watched each other.

Michael was so curled up in himself that Ray barely could see a thing, but he held his hands out. Michael's eyes watched him in distrust, but then he carefully let his arms sink to grasp his hands tightly.

The bird shone its light through the blackness of the words and Ray's breath hitched. There was an angry red rope burn deeply cut into Michael's throat and Ray squeezed his hands.

Behind him, Gavin stepped closer and Michael's eyes darted to him. The change was immediate and the words around them burst into Gavin's name. Over and over again. Overlapping each other and spilling onto the floor around their feet.

It was his way of communicating, Ray knew. Michael's throat was crushed, he couldn't get a word out or a breath in and still here he was, calling out to them. That's what he had done since the beginning. He had called out for him, for Ray, because he had been the only one who had promised not to hate him. He had been the one to hold his gaze before he had been dropped.

"Michael," Gavin breathed now and crouched down next to Ray. Michael's hands flew up, trying to grasp him, and Gavin also reached out, but they passed right through each other.

"No," the Prince whimpered. "No, I want to... I want to hold you. Michael, I want to-"

Ray caught their flying hands, one in each of his own to hold close, and even though they hadn't even had a real conversation or anything, Gavin stared at him with such a gratitude that it hurt. Ray couldn't do much more than smile sadly before turning back to Michael.

"He's here, Michael." he told him. "Gavin is right here and he has to tell you something very important. Will you listen?"

The warrior nodded wildly and his eyes darted towards the Prince.

"It wasn't you," Gavin said with a sad smile. "Michael, you never hurt me. You never hurt anyone. Neither did Triella."

_ Innocent? _ was written over the wall.

"Yes," Gavin agreed and his voice sounded too tight, sounded too close to breaking. "Of course you are, Michael."

Michael started to cry mutely, shaky tears as he closed his eyes and let his head hang. Gavin's breath hitched as well and again he tried to reach out with his free hand but passed right through him.

"You really believed it," Ray mumbled. "They really made you believe it, didn't you?"

The warrior nodded, grasping his hand so tightly that it hurt and Ray felt red hot anger burn in his stomach. They had- who? Jack, Geoff - both?

He couldn't think straight right now; all he knew was that they had tricked Michael. Had made him believe that he had killed those whom he had sworn to protect. They had hanged him for the crime that he hadn’t committed and Michael... Michael had stood there, ready to face his punishment with twisted guilt in his stomach.

They had destroyed him, and with him they had also destroyed the Knight.

For what?

Ray didn't know but he also didn't care. He couldn't think of a reason that would justify this.

"I am so sorry," Ray mumbled, and it wasn't only for Michael. It was also for the Prince and the Knight.

"Boi," Gavin called him and Michael opened his eyes again. There were big tears running down his face but his eyes were bright.

"Michael, you can rest now," Gavin assured him. "You were loyal until the end and you... you deserved so much better than this. So now... just sleep, for now, alright?"

"And don't fear," Ray added. "I know there is someone waiting for you. I know there is." He tried to squeeze his hand again but phased right through it. With a sinking feeling he realized that it was actually happening, that they didn't have another minute.

Gavin gasped next to him, reaching out again but couldn't touch, couldn't hold, couldn't comfort, and Michael tried to communicate with them, but his letters were also fading. Ray couldn't read them, didn't know what they said, and just like that-

Just like that, Michael was gone.

Gavin kneeled there and stared at where his best friend had disappeared, tears filling his eyes. Ray held his hand tighter and gently pulled him close with his other, now empty hand, but Gavin quickly shook him off. He wrenched his own hand out of his grip, balled it into a fist and hit the wall where the letters had vanished.

It did nothing for him besides cause pain, but Ray let him continue until the Prince leaned forward to rest his head against the wall.

Bitter tears ran down his face and Ray quickly averted his eyes, felt like he was intruding something, and he figured he was. Reaching up, he wiped his own eyes and wasn’t quite sure yet what to feel. Sure, it had been the right thing to free Michael, to tell him the truth, but the knowledge that he had been used to cover up the actual crime weighted heavily.

Gavin was gasping for breath next to him, his now bruised hand still hitting the wall a few times before he let it sink.

Ray threw him a short glance and didn’t know what to say to make it better. Maybe there weren’t even words for it, and in the end he just lifted his arm and wanted to at least touch him.

There was already a hand there, reaching through Gavin’s shoulder before pulling back and at least mimicking a comforting gesture. Ray wasn’t surprised to find the knight standing there, cloak bright red and a solemn look on his face. He only had eyes for Gavin right now, moving his hand to stroke through his unruly hair without really touching.

Ray sat down to watch the picture in the heavy silence that was only interrupted by Gavin’s frantic gasps as he cried and cried. And God, he didn’t even know that the Knight was there, and Ray wasn’t sure if he should tell him. Before he could decide, the Prince whispered, “He died. Michael died. For what?”

He didn’t have an answer but Gavin also didn’t expect one, his breath hitched as he reached up to take his crown of and throw it mindlessly away, the silver making high  _ clanks  _ against the floor.

“For what?” Gavin snapped as he screwed his eyes shut. “It was supposed to be  _ over!  _ We were all back together! The nightmare was gone,  _ Ryan  _ was gone!”

And then, much quieter, “It’s not fair… I never wanted this to happen…”

Glancing down, Ray pulled his knees against his chest and watched as the knight kneeled down behind Gavin.

It was nearly a mocking motion as he wrapped his arms around the Prince but Ray could tell he was desperate to comfort him. It didn’t help, of course not and the Knight let go.

“Gavin,” he said quietly, and Gavin opened his eyes.

It was a bit funny; he didn’t even glance at Ray even though it seemed to be logical to. Instead he turned his head and his face lit up as he saw the Knight. It was such a bittersweet expression, and it fell the second he tried to reach out. His hand passed right through as expected and he let it fall back down.

The silence carried on as Gavin completely turned towards the Knight and Ray couldn’t even make out his face anymore. It was an expression he didn’t recognize.

“You are not meant to be here,” Gavin told him quietly. “And even if you were, I should be able to touch you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Gavin shook his head briefly. “I just…”  
  
“I know,” the Knight assured him. He tried to take the other’s hand but caught himself before that. “You could never let things go. This time you should have.”

“God, you’re right.” Gavin huffed as he wiped his face. “I could have lived without knowing.”

“Died,” the Knight corrected and as if on some cue, they both started to snicker. Even Ray couldn’t help himself but smile a little.

It subsided soon enough and the Prince sighed deeply. “I am so sorry that this happened. If I neve-”

“I am sorry we couldn’t protect you,” the Knight interrupted him quickly. “We should have, it was our job. But Gavin, these things have started long before we realized. I am sure there is a bigger picture here we can’t see.” He hesitated, letting his eyes travel over the other’s face. “Or maybe you already do. Anyway, I don’t think we are to blame. Or maybe we are. I don’t know.”

“It wasn’t Michael,” Gavin said quietly.

“I know that.”  
  
“Still, Michael was hanged.” His eyes darted up to the knight. “And you…”

Again the Knight reached for his hands but passed right through, which was more of a statement than anything else.

Gavin exhaled, long and shakily, but pulled himself together enough to smile. It was sad, but a smile nonetheless as he looked at the Knight. “Are you going now?”

“I think so. Gonna follow Michael and make sure he doesn’t get lost. You know how he is.”  
  
“Yeah,” Gavin agreed quietly. “Please take good care of him.”  
  
“What are you talking about? We’ll wait for you as well.”

“This here might take a little while longer.”

“But you are nearly done, Gav,” the Knight told him. “I know it’s scary to face it but you have to. You have to find your peace with it. It’s been too long, there is nothing you can change anymore.”  
  
“It’s really been long… But don’t worry. I am tired of this game.”

“That’s good.” The Knight got to his feet, towering over them and Gavin made a small motion as if he wanted to reach for him before letting his hand fall back down. “I’ll see you soon?”  
  
“Really soon,” Gavin promised softly.

The Knight smiled and seemed satisfied with that. Ray wasn’t quite sure why, it seemed obvious that the Prince was lying. It was probably better like this anyway. 

He watched as the Knight disappeared, just like Michael had. Somehow a bit too fast, but slow enough to keep looking at Gavin until he was completely gone.

The Prince exhaled quietly before letting himself fall back against the wall. He brought his arms up to wrap around his head and now looked nearly like Michael had in the moment they had found him.

“You lied,” Ray mumbled, and maybe it was cruel to say it, but he had the feeling that he needed to know.

Gavin just nodded and kept curling in on himself. Which was fair enough, Ray was pretty sure he had just witnessed someone lose everything. He tried to imagine knowing that two of his best friends had  _ died  _ because of him. Even though it really wasn’t Gavin’s fault for being murdered, it still brought forth a horrible series of events.

But it hadn’t been accidents, right? No, it had been planned.

For how long?

“Do you know?” Gavin asked next to him and made him look up. “How he died? Did he tell you? You seem to know more than the others.”

“He told me a lot of things but I don’t think he wanted you to know that.”

Letting his arms sink, Gavin stared down the corridors without really seeing. He seemed endlessly tired in that moment. “And what do you think?”   
“I think he was right,” Ray told him. “I think it would be better for you not to know. You have enough on your plate as it is.”

The Prince nodded once before closing his eyes. Ray wondered if he would fall asleep but just a few seconds later, he already opened them again.

“We should go back,” he said. “You guys need to go home and I have to stop running away. There is really… really nothing left here for me to wait for. I should just face The Truth.”

“Okay,” Ray agreed and got to his feet. Now with the words gone, the hallway was brighter and he could see the reflection in the corner of his eye. It was the silver crown and next to it sat the little bird. Even though it was a demon, Ray stepped closer to it and picked the crown off the ground.

The bird didn’t flee, just watched him with its black eyes and cooed softly. It was a melody, something he had heard before in a dream or in a memory. 

A lullaby.

_ You showed me- _

The bird disappeared, leaving only sparks behind and he weighted the crown in his hands. It was heavier than he had expected but the light played over it beautifully.

It was strange; he expected flames on it somewhere.

Turning around, he stopped in front of the Prince and didn’t wait until the other looked up; he crowned him as he cowered on the ground, eyes red rimmed.

“It was always just an illusion,” Gavin told him as he reached up to touch the silver. “Something to give a little kid to play with so they wouldn’t bother you. I think I was ready to become a King, you know?”

“You would have been a great one.”

“That’s what Jack said as well.” The words were spoken through a grim smile before the Prince slowly stood. Wiping his face, he sighed.

“Let’s go back. Let’s end it.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we're almost at the end! Next week we'll be posting the last three chapters over each day of the weekend! Chapter 8 Friday, Chapter 9 on Saturday, and Chapter 10 on Sunday!
> 
> Love, catboysam


	8. Corona Australis & Corona Borealis - Southern Crown & Northern Crown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Processing his friends’ deaths before they went back to discussing his own certainly shouldn’t be easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Just a suggestion, you might want to listen to Porter Robinson's Goodbye To A World while reading this and chapter 9! Enjoy!

_Chapter 8_

**Corona Australis & Corona Borealis**

_Southern Crown & Northern Crown _

  


Ray and the Prince made their way back to the rest of the group, Ray purposefully walking slowly to give the Prince a few more moments of quiet so he could compose himself. It was certainly needed.

The Prince looked pale and was frantically wiping over his red-rimmed eyes, like he tried to erase the evidence of any weakness. At first Ray was sure it was a lost battle, but with each step the Prince seemed to pull himself together a bit more.

It had to be exhausting, but he did it with a certain dignity.

Ray wondered how often he had done it after Geoff’s death. How often he had stood next to the man who murdered his father and was forced to smile.

In the end it wasn’t perfect, but Ray was still impressed by it.

Processing his friends’ deaths before they went back to discussing his own certainly shouldn’t be easy.

His Michael ran to meet them as they emerged from the hallway; the barrier had apparently disappeared along with the Warrior and Triella. Michael grabbed Ray and pulled him close, and Ray could only be grateful that he could actually touch him.

“Fuck you. Just running off like that,” Michael whispered and Ray smiled as he held on tight. This Michael was warm, was solid against him, and he wanted to share this, wanted to show it to the Prince. He made a motion to pull the Prince in as well but the other shook him off quickly.

His face was drawn as he watched them and took a step away from them, and Ray let him.

Michael also pulled back now to throw him a sharp look and Ray figured that he somehow knew. He hadn’t felt it himself when his doppelganger had… what? Vanished? Found his peace?

Had those spirits been real or just hints?

He couldn’t tell, he just knew that they had been real to the Prince.

It had to hurt.

It surely did, even himself.

That other Michael, that Warrior, had called out to him. Had asked for help because deep inside he had known that he had been wronged.

_INNOCENT._

But had it really been him he had called or the Knight? Maybe it didn’t matter.

No, it surely didn’t.

He still watched the Prince, saw his dim green eyes wander over the others coming closer now as well and wondered what he saw.

People that betrayed him and people that had died for him.

It was no wonder that he hovered near Gavin hesitantly. When Gavin made no move to step away from the Prince, Ray saw the Prince visibly relax and shoot him a thankful glance.

“What the fuck happened?” Geoff demanded as he reached them, glancing them over. “Are you alright?”

“We’re fine,” Ray assured him.

“You’re shaking,” Michael told him and yeah, he was right.

It was adrenaline and the shock of seeing himself like that, of seeing Michael like that. He still didn’t dare to move away from him, fearing he would disappear as well.

“It’s okay,” he repeated. “Just a bit… I don’t know, it’s just a little fucked up. All of what happened back then.”

“Did you find the other Michael?” That was Jack who stepped up next to Geoff, and Ray gave a shaky smile.

“Yeah. We… we found him and I guess we set him free. He’s gone now.” He threw a look towards the Prince to confirm that, but the other wasn’t listening. He was pulling at his long scarf, wrapping it around himself, and when he breathed out, it was a white fog.

Frowning, Ray knew that it wasn’t that cold. None of the rest of them could see their breath. Well, besides Gavin. It was as if in the few steps separating them the temperature had dropped.

They didn’t seem to notice, but Ray locked eyes with Ryan, who nodded.

What was going on?

He didn’t know and maybe he didn’t want to. Turning back around, he checked on Geoff. “What now?”

Geoff’s face darkened a little and now the Prince looked up, watching him attentively.

Still he seemed surprised when the older actually turned towards him.

“What do you say?”

Pulling his scarf over his chin and mouth, the Prince crossed his arms in front of his chest as he thought about it. When he sighed and shook his head, he looked hopelessly resigned. “We end this and send you guys home,” he said carefully. “We still have to find out what exactly happened but we should be able to… to figure this out now.”

“Why do you punish yourself like that?” Ryan asked. “Isn’t this knowledge already enough? You still want the details?”

“I don’t have a choice.” No snarky remark, just a defeated certainty. “We have to finish this game.”

It was torture, Ray realized. Maybe he should have realized that sooner but it just hit him now. The Prince couldn’t escape this without pulling through. He couldn’t call for a pause, for a stop.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Gavin mumbled, his breath still visible. The Prince next to him threw him a weak smile before shrugging.

“I guess sometimes it’s true when they say that.”

Gavin nodded thoughtfully. “So we go back to where we started? King Geoff’s chamber?”

“It seems like it.” Uncrossing his arms, the Prince pushed past all of them. “Come on, I show you the way.”

 

* * *

 

Just like every other route in this castle, it seemed to take them ridiculously long to get there. Even now, Gavin couldn’t quite grasp how big this castle was.

He was walking right behind the Prince, like a shield between their groups, and he was pretty sure that was exactly what he was right now. It felt right, he wasn’t quite sure how, but he could tell that the Prince appreciated it.

Something was going on, the endgame maybe.

It was chilly and each time they walked past a window it was snowing. It hadn’t been before and he wasn’t even sure if the others could see it.

Michael could, he had seen him glance outside to watch the snow fall.

The long scarf brushed sometimes against his hand and it felt soft. It didn’t shatter, it didn’t fracture and he wondered if he could touch the Prince now.

But right now he rather wanted to wear the scarf himself; it was quite cold and he was starting to shake.

“It was a gift,” the Prince said quietly enough so that only the two of them could hear. Gavin wasn’t really surprised that the other had caught him thinking about it.

“From Geoff,” he answered because he had also caught that. “He gave it to you. He asked you to come inside and get warm by the fire.”

“Yeah, he did.” The Prince smiled at the memory. “He let me stay in a castle. He fed me and loved me even when I was of no use to him. Jack as well. They were my family.”

But one of them killed you, Gavin thought to himself. It was too blunt to say it like that but he didn’t have to, the Prince just nodded next to him. “I guess that’s true.”

“It hurts,” Gavin said.

“Yeah it does.”

“Why is it this cold?”

“The dimension is wearing thin. We see what’s beneath.” He glanced out of the window. “It’s still falling. The snow, that is. We still got some time left.”

Gavin nodded in understanding as they began to climb the stairs up to the tower he had woken up in.

He knew that the other was right about this dimension; he could see in between the cracks. Back before the snow was falling and he watched the Prince walk this path before. How he had sneaked past his guards at this late hour because they would trail him like animals even though he just wanted to walk the short distance between his room and Geoff’s.

He had been invited inside the King’s chamber where it was warm and cozy and it always smelled like home. Had been invited to share his opinions on their next steps because he was Geoff’s heir and he had a lot to learn.

Before it had been scary but he was rather excited, hurrying up the steps.

Now Gavin was stumbling over those exact steps because he had looked too deep, but a hand caught him. It was the Prince, holding him upright, and like expected the other didn’t fracture like glass.

Looking up to him, he could tell that the time was running out.

And the Prince himself was the last hint.

 

* * *

 

They reached the top of the stairs and only then did the Prince let go of him because he froze on the spot. Gavin just pushed past him, could hear someone call him to wait and it was either Jack or Geoff, he didn’t care enough to actually listen.

He walked up to the door he had stepped out of what felt like days before and opened it.

It had changed just like he had expected it to.

The fire was burning warm in the fireplace and outside it was pitch black. It was late at night here and only now it began to snow.

It had to be Geoff who had called him because he was the first to catch up with him. Gavin could hear how his breath hitched before he grasped his shoulder.

“Oh, Jesus Christ. This can’t b-” He stopped himself, pulling at Gavin while calling over his shoulder, “Don’t come closer. Stay there!”  
  
“I need to,” Gavin mumbled and tried to shake him off. “Geoff, I need to.”  
  
“You don’t take another step and you two,” he was talking to Ray and Michael now, Gavin could tell, “You stay where the fuck you are. Don’t you guys dare to come a step clos- Jack!”

Gavin looked up to find Jack prying Geoff’s hand from him so he could move forward. There was some understanding in Jack’s eyes even though he looked pained as well.

It didn’t matter right now because Gavin moved into the room, ignoring their discussion as he stepped towards the body on the bed.

That certainly hadn’t been there before. At least not in this form. He himself had woken up there, the Prince had been next to him. So to some degree it had just been another point of view, only to be revealed when the time was right.

This was the endgame.

A hand clamped around his upper arm, not even to stop him, just to steady him, and Gavin threw a thankful look up to Jack. The older didn’t return it, his face drawn as he watched the body on the bed, and Gavin also turned back around.

It was… he wasn’t even sure. What was he supposed to feel? He was seeing himself dead and his mind wasn’t quite ready to catch up to that. It wasn’t a picture that was supposed to be seen, it wasn’t a situation that was supposed to exist and yet, here he was.

Geoff was still protesting but he wouldn’t follow inside here. He wouldn’t be able to see this, and just a few seconds later his voice grew quieter as someone closed the door.

Someone else stepped into the room along with them and Gavin was betting on Ryan. There was no noise to confirm but he would have to look around to make sure and he couldn’t quite avert his eyes.

“It was someone who loved him dearly,” Jack said next to him, and his hand felt warm and comforting now.

Gavin nodded.

The Prince laid in the bed, the crown placed next to his head. He was tightly tucked in warm blankets, resting on a soft pillow, and Gavin remembered that it was exactly how he had woken up himself.

Someone had folded his hands over the blanket and had closed his eyes.

All in all it could be a peaceful sight, more a sleeping child than royalty.

But the lips were purple, his eyelids blueish. The skin waxen as if he had frozen and Gavin breathed out fog. Jack tugged him closer and he was warm.

He leaned his head against Jack’s shoulder but didn’t close his eyes. He wasn’t even sure if he was able to.

“Poison.” That was Ryan who said it somewhere behind him, and Jack turned around, pulling Gavin along and out of his trance.

There was a desk littered with files and maps and a nearly used up candle on top. Two goblets rested next to each other, along with a bottle of what looked like wine.

Ryan was peering into both of them before glancing towards them.

“Only one person emptied their cup. Gav- the body doesn’t look like he’s been hurt.”

That much was true, no sight of a fight. Neither scratches or bruises.

“He just fell asleep,” Gavin mumbled. “I got tired and closed my eyes. It was fine, someone was watching over me.”

Jack threw him a weird look he managed to ignore as he leaned heavily against him. He was growing tired again.

“I was asked to come up here. To study the maps and help decide on some matters. I was proud to be able to help out.”

He was jostled before he could close his eyes completely and snapped to attention. Blinking, he took in Ryan’s dark expression, could feel how Jack laid his arm around his shoulder now to steady him. It was nice, he was growing cold.

“Stay with us,” one of them said.

“I’m trying.” It wasn’t really true and it came out dully. He was too far gone, knew that if he looked deep enough, he would be able to _see._

But seeing wasn’t enough, right? Him seeing would change nothing and he didn’t want to.

This room reeked of tears.

And still - he had to show the Prince. Had to make him believe what neither of them wanted.

There was a lullaby trapped in this room, trapped in the stars above and even in the snow. It was playing every which way depending if the snow was falling up or down.

It wasn’t overlapping right, the room too loud, the stars too far away, and the snow a barrier in between that just wouldn’t vanish.

It made the devil’s music, pulsing and festering and _wrong._ It wasn’t the way it was meant to be sung.

It was supposed to come from a child’s mouth, clear and innocent.

This here was tainted even though he didn’t know the song.

He didn’t recognize the lullaby and it was as if the world was standing still in that moment.

The snow stopped in midair, the fire stopped flickering.

Like he had broken the rules, like there was a crowd whispering among themselves.

_“He doesn’t know it. Doesn’t know the lullaby. What does it mean what does it mean what does i-”_

The next thing he knew, he was laid down on a cold floor. Geoff was next to him, brushing through his hair, and Jack and Ryan were sitting by his side after they carried him out.

No, he wasn’t in the King’s chamber anymore, and Ray and Michael were hovering over him, their faces drawn in worry.

The Prince was missing. The Prince wasn’t here because he was lying dead in bed and he himself was lying dead in bed but that wasn’t quite true. He didn’t know the lullaby, he wasn’t the same, wasn’t a part of this cycle.

It was a feeling as if something had gone terribly wrong.

It was a feeling as if something had finally turned out right.

Gavin couldn’t decide what it was.

It mattered. It mattered a great deal because there was a Truth hidden he couldn’t grasp. But it also didn’t matter because deep down he couldn’t change it anymore.

The cards had already been placed.

“Gav?” That was Geoff above him and he let his eyes travel back to him. “Are you with us again?”

Licking his lips, he nodded. He was pretty sure he was. The melody, the lullaby had been left behind in that room. His own dead body locked away again.

“What happened?” he asked.

“You collapsed,” Jack told him. “The room started to go nuts and you just… just rolled your eyes up and were gone.”

“You shouldn’t go back in there,” Geoff said and he was still stroking hair out of his face. It felt nice, the soothing motion.

“I have to,” Gavin protested. “The last hint is inside of there.”  
“Someone else can gather it. I don’t think it’s good for you. I actually think the room reacted to you being there.”

That was probably true. Gavin wondered why that was. Maybe because one and the same shouldn’t exist in the same place alive and dead.

Probably because he hadn’t known the lullaby.

Yeah, that sounded more likely.

Geoff helped him sit up slowly but besides the confusion he felt fine. Plastering a smile on his face, he hoped he would assure the others of that fact as his eyes searched.

The Prince was still there, standing by the stairs he was watching them with sharp eyes. Sharp and envious eyes, Gavin could tell.

As he watched his doppelganger, he saw the breath come out as fog, and the Prince quickly wrapped his scarf tighter around himself.

“It has to be me,” Gavin said slowly. “He wouldn’t accept anyone else.” Even though he wasn’t quite sure who ‘he’ was, Gavin saw the Prince nodding in understanding.

Geoff instantly turned towards him, like he was going to fight him, and something like pain flashed over the Prince’s face.

Geoff siding against him, choosing someone else above him. Gavin could feel the pain resonating in him.

It wasn’t surprising or meant to hurt, but here they were now. Facts didn’t change because of emotions.

Gavin got to his feet, Geoff and Jack hovering next to him as if they feared he would collapse in the next second, but just like before he felt fine. Just cold.

His breath was condensating again.

“We should end this,” the Prince said as he wrapped his arms around himself. “It’s no use wasting anymore time.”

He was right even though he was telling it to himself instead of them, and Gavin nodded. Geoff’s hand grasped his arm tightly but it was Ray who stepped in front of him.

“Don’t get lost inside of the memory,” he told him, his cheeks heating up a bit. “It feels like it’s happening but… but it’s not. I don’t think it can actually hurt you but it can surely leave its scars.”

“Alright. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

“You’d better.” Ray stepped away with a pleased nod as the Prince came closer. It was a little impressive how they all parted to let him through without another word until he stood in front of the King’s chamber.

Only Geoff made a movement to stop him, from not stepping inside like he had done with Gavin, but just like before he was shrugged off.

Gavin also freed himself from his grip to join his doppelganger.

Someone was calling them while they stepped into the room, but when the door slammed shut behind them it was cut off. Inside the fire was still frozen in place but Gavin saw how the snow was moving.

The snow was falling upwards.

The dead body was still lying in bed, but funnily enough neither of them were really bothered by it.

“You know what happened here.” Gavin said as he turned his attention to the Prince.  
  
“I always did.”  
  
“You just chose not remember.”  
  
“ _We_ chose not to remember.”

“Ah, I see how it is now. Do you think that’s how it is?”

“A latent collection of memories? Not quite but close enough. There are different…”

“Lapses.”

“Cycles.”

“Words. It all comes back to those.”

“They weren’t whispered to you.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“I think it is.”

The Prince sighed and then Gavin took his hand. They were both watching the snow now.

“We are at the same point, in the same time and space.”

“But we are going in different directions.”

“You won’t come back here though.” The Prince frowned a little. “I think that’s the difference.”

“I see.” Gavin closed his eyes and now he could hear the lullaby again. “The Truth is hidden in the stars, isn’t it? Ursa Major leading to Polaris. Polaris showing the way for lost souls.”

“It’s certainly one Truth but I don’t think it’s the one you are thinking about. That’s a good thing.”

“What is the lullaby?”

“Just a hollow memory.”

“Does it belong to the stars or to the snow?”

“Both. Neither. It’s in between. It can pull you to one direction or the other. It’s dangerous like that.”

“It has a color.”  
  
“It most certainly does. It has the same color as the whispered words.”

Gavin nodded slowly before squeezing the hand he was holding as he asked, “Will you show me how you died?”

“Yes,” the Prince agreed. “And afterwards… afterwards I will follow the snow and you should follow the stars.”

“Thank you…”

Now the Prince smiled, shy and hidden like the moon. “I loved them, you know? With everything I had.”

“I know that.” Gavin threw a look towards the body. How it was tucked in like a child. “They did so as well.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind.” Sighing, the Prince turned towards him and took his other hand. “I will show you my Truth but first I have to ask you a question. I need you to answer the question with what you think is the right choice.”

“Alright.”

“Are you afraid of the dark?”

“No,” Gavin whispered, and the Prince smiled again.

“That’s good to hear.”

 

* * *

 

 

If Ray was here, he would be able to tell him that it wasn’t the same as with him. He wasn’t inside the Prince, didn’t see through his eyes or feel his feelings.

He was standing at the sidelines, watching as the room twisted and turned in front of him.

The Prince had somehow vanished from his side but not quite. Gavin wasn’t able to see him anymore but he was still holding one of his hands. He was also out there, hurrying up the stairs to not be too late.

Geoff had asked him to join him tonight.

But it wasn’t only Geoff in here, there was also Jack. Gavin could see them frozen in time, standing around the desk in the middle of the room.

The desk looked the same as before, just the goblets were missing. Not placed yet.

The door was thrown open and time moved on as the memory began.

The Prince waltzed in rather rudely, no knocking or anything. It seemed to be a normal occurrence because only Jack looked up in something that was annoyance. It fell just as quickly in a solemn expression as he turned back around.

"You're late."

"Took some time to get past the guards."

"Liar," Jack chided. "I am here. There aren't even any guards down the stairs right now."

"Fine. Forgot the time talking to Ray for a bit," The Prince admitted sheepishly.

"Just Ray? What about Michael?" Geoff asked and looked up from the map, frowning. "Also close the door. It's bothersome."

"Michael wasn't feeling well and retired early." He turned around to close the door and missed the way Geoff and Jack shared a short glance. "He isn't sleeping well after coming back."

"That is to be expected," Geoff said, and Gavin saw him move his hands over his arms. They were covered in artistic marks, not quite unlike the tattoos he would wear in his time. These here were demon marks though, sliced and burned into skin for resisting a contract. They were able to repel dark spirits.

Gavin knew it because the Prince knew it.

"Well, he is sleeping now," the Prince told him before moving further into the room. He flopped down on the chair next to Geoff, wrinkling some documents he sat on in the process. "So what's this about?"

Geoff didn't seem surprised or offended by his behavior as he pointed towards the map. "Now that Fieldhollow is under our control, we need to establish a safe route there."

"Because of the minerals they have?" the Prince asked. "You want to bring most of it here?"

"That's the first step, yeah." Geoff seemed pleased now. Maybe because the Prince had known what he was talking about, maybe he was now taking the map in more closely. "From here we will ship them to some of the villages that are close to the border. Can you guess why?"

The Prince was quiet for a second, gnawing at his bottom lip. He was concentrated enough that he didn't notice how Jack turned away from them to open a cabinet. Gavin did.

He moved to stand behind Jack and peered inside the cabinet. It contained wine and liquor, just has he had expected, and his heart grew heavy.

"To strengthen the economy?" the Prince said somewhere behind him, but he didn't listen. He watched how Jack picked one bottle and how his hand shook while doing so. Jack had been quiet since the Prince had come in and now that he had his back turned towards the other two, he looked tired. His eyes were dark like the crescent moons beneath them. He was pale in general, like he was getting sick, and he took way too long with just standing there, staring at the wine.

Gavin wanted to tell him not to do it, he even reached out in hope to just... just slap the bottle out of his hand and hopefully make it crash on the floor.

Of course a part of him knew that it wouldn't work, that he was merely observing. His voice didn't carry and his hand passed right through.

All he could do was watch and ask Jack why.

What was the point?

Jack moved again, taking two goblets in his hand, and Gavin wondered if he also wanted to get rid of Geoff. If it was luck that it only had been the Prince. But why? Hadn't Jack gone out and brought Geoff back?

And Geoff was right there! How would Jack be able to hide it from him, to make him believe it was Michael?

Well, the answer to this was easy, wasn't it?

Turning around, Jack walked back towards the desk and placed the goblets down. He poured wine in each of them, roughly the same amount. Gavin kept a close eye on him but he did not slip anything in. Either the wine inside was already poisoned and Geoff hadn't-

But here he was, the first to reach for a goblet and pull it close to himself. He did it without looking, his eyes locked with Jack.

They were staring at each other with an unknown intensity that made Gavin shudder. In the end Geoff also pulled the other goblet close and gave a soft nod.

Jack closed his eyes but when he opened them again, his expression was schooled, a carefully crafted mask.

"I'll head to bed now as well," he said and the Prince looked up. He had measured something on the map, tongue sticking out from between his lips in concentration before he frowned now.

"Already?"

"I am not a youngster anymore."

"Not as old as Geoff though," the Prince reminded him and chuckled when he was shoved by his king.

Jack also smiled as he stepped closer. Leaning down, he pulled the Prince close to drop a kiss on his hair. "Good night, Buddy."

The Prince fought halfheartedly against the embrace, but when Jack then finally let him go, he beamed up to him. "Good night, Jack!"

With a nod, Jack moved past him, squeezing Geoff's shoulder before leaving the King's chamber.

"You also need to take a bloody nap?"

"If you need another hour to give me the distance from there to the border of Fieldhollow," Geoff bickered back and smirked when the Prince pulled a face at him. It grew bitter as the younger turned back to his work, starting anew after the interruption which left Geoff to look at the two goblets.

He didn't want to do it, Gavin could tell by his expression. Quite a big part of him refused to go the next step, but in the end he still would.

Jack knew that just as well. He wasn't going to bed, no. He just didn't want to be here. Geoff had allowed him to leave, would have allowed him to not even be here in the first place, but of course he had come.

He was Geoff's mirror; of course he would.

If Geoff had demanded it, he would have poisoned the wine right then and there. If Jack had demanded it, they would have never gotten this far.

It was a dangerous balance between those two.

Still, Gavin stood on the other side of the table and watched how Geoff brought a little pouch of powder forth. With barely any hesitation, he poured it into one of the goblets.

"Nineteen miles?" the Prince asked next to him.

_This is nineteen, this is chassit._

"That's right, yeah."

_And all your friends are dead._

"If you knew it, why didn't you just tell me!" the Prince protested.

"Because it's something you have to learn to figure out on your own, Buddy," Geoff told him and leaned back in his seat, putting the two goblets in the spotlight.

The Prince rolled his eyes before reaching out and taking the poisoned one.

Geoff's hand lifted as if to stop him before it simply curled around the other one.

In the end, it had been a choice.

Gavin knew that it was something King Geoff would hold onto in the weeks that followed while they watched as the Prince downed his death.

For a while nothing really happened, which was maybe the worst part of it. The way the Prince just chattered on, while they both watched him die. How he emptied his cup and filled it again, not noticing that Geoff had fallen silent and wasn't drinking himself. It was kind of haunting to watch the symptoms appear one by one.

Gavin watched how the Prince reached up, massaging his temple as if to avoid a headache, how he rubbed his eyes as he got tired. He slurred his words a little, giving a funny look towards the wine before shoving the goblet away from himself. It was too late anyway and Geoff's face darkened, his jaw clenched.

When the Prince tried to stand, his knees buckled and he stumbled against the desk. Again he reached out, clutching his head, but Geoff was already standing up to steady him.

"Sorry, I think I had a bit too much," the Prince mumbled as he leaned heavily against his father. "I wanted to have some water. Could you bring me some? I am not feeling all too well."

"I think you should lay down for a moment," Geoff told him, and the other nodded quietly. He tried to guide him towards the bed but the Prince's legs didn't seem to listen. He clung to Geoff to not fall down and stared confusedly towards the ground, like he was asking himself what was happening. Even though the sights were all there, he still-

"Maybe I ate something wrong..."

"The wine was quite strong. I should have checked on how much you were drinking."

"I'm not a little child anymore!"

"No... no, you are not." He watched the Prince with a dark fondness, watched how he buried his face in his shoulder and groaned. "Come on. I'll help you, Buddy."

Throwing his arm around his shoulders, Geoff held on tight as he walked him towards the bed. The Prince was stumbling, tripping in his steps, but it wasn't that far until Geoff gently lowered him to sit down.

"Thanks." He tried himself on a smile but his eyes were closing, his lids heavy. "I'd really like some water, Geoff."

"In a minute," Geoff told him as he kneeled in front of the bed and began to untie the other's boots. The Prince watched him, blinking down owlishly.

"Hey Buddy?" he asked after a while.

"Mh?"

"You know that as a King you should always have the wellbeing of your kingdom in your mind. It's the most important thing."

"Yeah..."

"I was raised like this, it was drilled into my mind since childhood."

"Are you worried that I won't be like that?" the Prince asked carefully. He was swaying dangerously but fought to pull his thoughts together. "Because I've also been learning, Geoff. I've been watching you since childhood myself and... and I want to be a good King as well."

Geoff smiled sadly as he pulled the boots off. "So you understand what I am saying?"

"I think I do."

"I'm glad. Come on now." He helped the boy to lay down and get his long legs beneath the blanket. The Prince mumbled a soft thanks as Geoff tucked him in before sitting down next to him.

"Gavin," he began as he carefully eased the crown from the younger's head. "Demons... demons they are sly and manipulative."

"What do you mean?"

"I have to get rid of them, you see? They are infesting my kingdom and my people," he said quietly and now he was able to card a hand through the unruly hair. The Prince watched him with blurry eyes. "In my time in the Nether I learned how cruel they were. What damage they cause, what marks they leave. I am so sorry, Buddy. I am so sorry, if I realized this sooner... God..."

He rubbed his face, his whole body shuddering.

“What does that mean, Geoff?” the Prince asked carefully. He tried to reach out in comfort but his hand fell back. "I'm getting tired..."

"It's fine," the king lied. "It's all going to be alright now. You can... you can just sleep for a while."

“I don’t want to sleep yet,” the Prince whispered, even as his eyes dropped shut. “I want to stay with you longer…”

“I’ll still be here when you wake up, don’t worry about that," Geoff told him before leaning forward. Brushing hair out of the boy's face, he pressed a kiss against his forehead.

“Promise?” the Prince asked.

“I promise,” Geoff said.

The Prince drifted off into a slumber that grew deeper by the second. Gavin could see how his head rolled a bit to the side as he breathed out in a sigh. Besides Geoff's shaky gasps it was the only sound in the room and now Gavin realized he was also crying.

This was a picture made out of so much love and desperation that it was hard to take in.

Geoff didn't seem to want to do what he was doing and now he reached up. He grasped his golden crown to throw it to the ground as he slipped from the bed onto the floor. He cowered there, holding the Prince's hand as he slipped down deeper and deeper away from them.

The King was crying now, sobbing and whimpering as he buried his face in the sheets as if to hide from the shame. As if to hide from the picture in front of him.

Gavin didn't want to watch this, wondered why he was still here, but he could still see the Prince breathe. Could see his chest rise in mocking, shallow motions.

The door opened again and he had to blink through his own tears to recognize Jack.

Jack who walked over to the pair with slow steps. Who watched them from above before straightening the blanket over boy. He gently freed the Prince’s hand from Geoff's grip to fold it with the other over his chest before placing the silver crown next to his head.

It looked peaceful now, and Jack nodded to himself as if that would make things better.

"I needed to," Geoff sobbed. He hadn't moved yet, still hid his face. "I couldn't have a demon at such a high rank! I couldn't risk him becoming the King one day! If we hadn't brought him here... if we had never... never accepted him..."

"I know," Jack simply said. There were also tears in his eyes even though Gavin couldn't hear them in his voice. But it was harder to see, harder to listen. It was growing dark and their words came from far, far away.

He saw how Jack kneeled down next to the King and pulled him close, his eyes not leaving the boy as he cradled Geoff.

The Prince took his last breath and the memory faded.

 

* * *

 

Gavin woke with a loud gasp, forcing air down his lungs as he fell to his knees. Shivers wracked through his body as he fell over and had to catch himself with his hands.

Beneath him was a soft carpet, the same carpet where King Ramsey had cowered  just seconds before. Big tears rolled down his cheeks as the feeling wouldn’t settle. The feeling of being killed.

It was lurking in the depth of his stomach, making him feel sick and weak as he kneeled there and trembled.

A pair of boots entered his line of sight and Gavin lifted his head. The Prince stood in front of him, unraveling his scarf as far as he could see through his blurry eyes.

Gavin opened his mouth, wanted to say something but couldn’t find any words. There weren’t any words for this!

It had hurt him, seeing this, had hurt him to the core - so how should he even begin to imagine how hurtful it had to be for the other? Which simple word would dare to make it better?

_“Words. It all comes back to those.”_

Maybe that was still true. He didn’t know.

Something banged against the door and Gavin turned around, realizing they were still in the King’s chamber. The distant voices of the others disturbed them now even though they hadn’t been able to before.

How much time had passed? Any at all?

For them… had they just gone through that door?

He found no answer, just flinched when something soft touched his neck. It was the green scarf, and he turned back around. The Prince was tightly wrapping the scarf around him and he looked strangely naked without it, his breath fogging.

“What are you doing?” Gavin asked, his voice wavering as he tried to blink his tears away.

The Prince didn’t answer, just watched him solemnly, and when Gavin reached out to stop him, he fractured like glass.

Just like before.

Their bond was broken as quickly as it had been knit.

He wasn’t quite sure if he wanted that, he had the feeling he needed to know what the other thought, what he was planning now.

What The Truth was.

But maybe it was better sometimes not to know.

The door was thrown open and noise filled the room.

This time Gavin didn’t turn around, not when steps came closer and someone took a hold on his shoulders, shaking him softly. Names were called and a lot of those was his own.

He kept his eyes tightly locked with the shattered ones of the Prince, even as the other turned away from him, searching for Geoff.

Geoff who wasn’t sitting next to him, trying to check for any wounds. That was Jack and next to Jack was Michael. He recognized their voices, their hands on him.

Geoff was standing between them, like he couldn’t quite decide which to turn to.

Seeing him felt… strange.

He had killed him. In another time, in another cycle.

But there was no rage. Horror from what he had seen, yes, but he couldn’t see the same things in Geoff’s eyes he had seen in the King’s.

The fear slammed into him a second later by the way the Prince stared at him. Because the Prince… the Prince didn’t see it the same way he did.

“No,” Gavin gasped as he tried to get to his feet. “Stop! What are yo-”

He was too late but also not powerful enough. The Prince controlled time and space in here and before his very eyes the world fractured. Big cracks moving through the room, through the body on the bed.

Through the Prince as he destroyed the world.

“Wait!” Gavin called, or was it someone else? Maybe Michael. Michael was also getting to his feet, could also see the snow pouring out from the gaps.

Jack pulled both of them close and in the corner of his eye, Gavin could see how Ryan did the same with Ray, tucking him safely into his side.

There was a crack going through Geoff and he seemed surprised by it. Looked down to touch where it slashed through his chest and Gavin screamed.

The cracks didn’t harm them, the cracks were part of the snow while they were moving towards the stars. He could feel how they called and sang as he reached towards both of them but the snow was growing too thick, falling upwards to take their sight and only now did Geoff turn his head towards them, but it was already too late.

The Prince was keeping him as they fell into the stars.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's the end of the main story! Tomorrow and Sunday are the epilogues! I hope you enjoy them as well!
> 
> Love, catboysam


	9. Epilogue I Gemini - Pollux, The Divine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Did you ever watch a world die?”

_ Epilogue Part One _

**Gemini**

_ Pollux, The Divine _

  
  


“Did you ever watch a world die?” someone asked. “No? You should take a look. No matter how often it happens, it's always unique, always bound to the feelings going with it. Surely always a sight to behold.”

Geoff opened his eyes.

He was laying on a hard ground and stared up into the night sky littered with stars, and that was good. It seemed to be the only light source here.

He turned his head towards the voice and found someone sitting next to him.

“Gavin?” he asked and the other turned around.

“Hello Geoff,” he replied. “Long time no see. Even though it should be a short time for you as well as me. It really depends on how you look at it, don't you think? About what is yours and what is mine. There are a lot of those things in life, wouldn't you agree?”

He didn't know, he just sat up as well and took a look around. His eyes were slowly getting used to the darkness around but he couldn't make anything out. It was all just a wasteland around.

“Where's the castle?”

“Long gone,” Gavin told him. “Just because  _ he _ clung to that time and space doesn't mean that it doesn't move on.  _ His _ illusion was nothing more than that. An illusion of a child.” He laughed quietly. “Humans are such desperate beings. So powerless in the great scheme of things and still I watched some of them bring nations down.”

Geoff turned back towards him and in the blue glow of the stars he looked just like the Prince. The scarf was missing, the clothes slightly different.

“You're not him,” Geoff said.

“No, I am neither the Prince nor yours. He wanted to keep you, to pull you down in a childish fit, but he would have regretted it. You're also not allowed to follow him into the Truth, no one is.”

He didn't even pretend to understand that. “Then who are you?”

“I am both. I am nothing,” Gavin chuckled. “I am the first and I will be the last. The one who made the wish.” He sighed. “This story has a thousand endings. Some of them are so beautiful that I can't take a look at them. Others are filled with such sadness. At each new one I wait with bated breath.”

Maybe he understood.

“You are watching over the timelines. Over the cycles,” Geoff said carefully and didn't feel relieved when the other nodded.

“I keep them from twisting and turning. I whisper in the night,” Gavin said. He propped his head on his hands and turned towards Geoff. “I don't have a lot of might but I'm becoming stronger. That's a good thing, I think.”

With an unsure smile, he pointed up into the night. “I create windows to the other dimensions and worlds. I hang them up in the sky for all of us to see and it's starting to work. Some are traveling through to send messages and guidance to the others. It's so easy to slip into a new deal, to get a new wish granted. But more of us resist. Maybe it means nothing, but it's all I can do.” He sighed again and let himself fall onto his back, arms spread out wide.

“Some just need to take a glance upwards once in awhile,” he spoke towards the stars. “Some try to find familiar faces up there, fascinated by the courage of the ones who do.”

Turning his head, he smiled towards Geoff. “Do you see it? Do you know about the courage of stars, Geoff?”

He shook his head, mouth dry in fear of a wrong answer but the other just laughed.

“That's good. Yours also didn't know the lullaby. You are all descendants of the Netherwalker. Of the one who escaped the Truth. He is still out there somewhere. Sometimes I manage to catch a glimpse on him.”

“I don't-”

“Of course you don't understand. It's better if you don't. It's most certainly a lot to take in.”

Geoff stared down to him and tried to wrap his head around this. He felt like he was having a déjà vu but couldn't be sure. Some of these words were resonating with him, but on such a deep level that he couldn't even begin to reach why that was.

“Come on, lay down,” Gavin told him and patted the hard stone next to him. “It will start soon and I think it will be a pretty one.”

“What will?”

“The end of this world, I told you,” he said way too casually. “I saw horrible, horrible ones. The ones where everything goes down in sickness or in war. But this one here is taking its final breaths right now and will close off.”

Carefully Geoff laid down next to him to look up, it wasn’t like he had a choice. The stars were flickering as if it was a summer night even though it was rather cold. He followed those few shapes he knew, Ursa Mayor mostly.

His eyes traced its form, followed the handle and frowned then as he couldn't find Polaris. He wanted to ask why that was but feared the answer.

“Ah, there it goes,” Gavin mumbled and in the next second the stars began to fall from the skies.

They didn't look like shooting stars, it wasn't that fast. It was like snow was falling down, covering the ground, covering them in stardust.

It was glowing. A blue, cold glow.

Geoff wasn't sure which of them reached out because he didn't dare to avert his eyes from the sky above him. He just knew that he was clutching Gavin's hand and Gavin was clutching his as the stars rained down on them.

Nobody said something in the eternity it took to paint the sky completely black and vast and Geoff wasn't yet ready to follow as Gavin sat up next to him.

The boy was touching the dust around them, throwing it into the air like he wanted to hang the stars up in their rightful place again and for a moment it really looked like he would succeed.

But in the end they just floated back down. At least he seemed happy with that.

“It really was pretty,” he mumbled as he carefully cleaned his hands. “It's a lost place now and you can only enter through the trapped night. My job here is done for now, even though I know I have already returned before.”

Geoff watched him with stars in his hair and Gavin turned towards him, smiling a bit sadly. “I need to ask a favor from you, Geoff. That's why I brought you here.”

“What do you need me to do?” he asked breathless.

“I told you that I keep the dimensions from twisting before their time and I need your help with that,” he explained. “For a story with a thousand endings, it needs one fixed point.”

“The beginning.”

Gavin nodded. “And I need help steadying it.” He reached his hand out for Geoff to take. “Will you?”

This time it was Geoff's turn to snort. “You’re not afraid I’ll mess it up? Sounds pretty important.”

“Technically you already did your part. You actually can't mess it up.”

“So you asking was just you being polite?”

“Let's say I was taught by someone to not act like a baby.”

They shared a smile and Geoff let himself be pulled up. Stardust was falling from his shoulders as they both stood and he took one more look around in this wasteland before it shifted.

He guessed they were switching dimensions and expected to feel something but he really didn't. He just blinked against the sudden bright snow, and maybe he missed to be able to touch stars. Not that they felt like anything at all. They weren’t cold or hot.

They just were.

In front of them was a little hut, smoke coming out of the chimney, and it looked nearly cozy in there. Gavin sighed deeply as he tugged Geoff on by his hand.

“What is this place?”

“The place I grew up in.”

He didn't say home. It wasn't home.

Inside it was warm but empty. Quiet like a grave, but Gavin didn't seem to be surprised by that. He marched through the tiny kitchen, towards the back of the house and Geoff wanted to stop him, to ask what he was meant to do. Just because he couldn't screw it up, didn't mean that he had a clue in the first place.

But before that, Gavin opened a door and he looked into a sad little room. It was bare of any things beside a bed in the corner.

No toys or colors. A little table where someone could place a plate maybe.

In the bed laid a child, pale like fresh snow with only two ruddy spots on his cheeks. The little boy was obviously having a fever but he lifted his head a little to look at them. Somehow Geoff hadn't expected that. That someone would be able to see them, or rather him.

The green eyes were only focusing on him.

Again he wanted to ask what he was meant to do when the words flowed out of his mouth already, “Come with me, Gavvy.”

That seemed like a horrible idea. The boy was sick, was burning up but now he was smiling. A confused, gentle smile as he fought to get onto his feet.

Geoff was moving to help him when Gavin stopped him with a touch of his hand before nodding back towards the kitchen.

“Follow me.”

He did because he knew he had to. Throwing a look over his shoulder, he found the child trying to keep up. If he had heard Gavin, he didn't let it show as he walked on his short, shaky legs.

“Where are we going?” he asked Gavin and the kid asked the same question at the same time.

Geoff found the answer in his own head.

“The lake. You like the lake, don't you?”

_ No!  _

Horror filled him even though he didn't understand completely. He wanted to break out but couldn't help but follow the footsteps that Gavin left for him. And Gavin didn't turn around, just marched out of the front door again and Geoff wanted to scream at him to stop.

Scream at him to ask what he expected to happen.

It was cold and snowing. The child was sick and was only wearing a thin nightclothes.

Geoff’s mouth was screwed shut, his mind clawing against the restraint he couldn't break out of.

It was freezing outside, he could feel the cold bite at his skin but he followed the path meant for him.

Until he broke out of it.

It was a minute’s decision, he heard the soft gasp and turned around to find the kid lying in the snow. Too weak to go on, lips blue from the cold and Geoff was already on the way to him before he could stop himself.

He scooped the child up and held him close, before the restraints could stop him. Shushing the shaking boy, he rocked him a little, and maybe he would just fall asleep.

With tears in his eyes he stared up to Gavin who stared right back. Not angry, just surprised before he smiled sadly.

Geoff turned away from him, didn't want to see him right now as he hummed to the boy. He wrapped his arms tightly around his little body to share some warmth as he hummed his old lullaby.

A few feet ahead Gavin fell in with words he didn't recognize,  _ “You taught me the courage of stars.” _ His eyes found Geoff's again.  _ “How light carries on endlessly, even after death.” _

They moved on, walking through the high snow and he felt the boy breathe against his neck, little hands grasping for his shirt. He wanted to tell him that he could go to sleep, that he would look out for him and assure him that nothing would harm him.

Those lies didn't fall from his lips but at least he could keep him a little warm.

They reached the lake soon after and Gavin pointed to one of the trees. His hand was shaking.

Geoff moved there and from here he could look over the expanse of the lake. It was a beautiful place, even more so in summer but now the sight made him sick.

“Where's Mommy?” the boy whispered and he closed his eyes.

The boy recognized him as someone he wasn’t and it broke his heart.

“She'll be here soon,” he said, and this lie was easy.

Turning around, he sat the boy down by the tree. Down onto the cold ground and the boy watched him with fevered eyes. He probably didn't even really see him.

Geoff patted through his hair and wanted nothing more than to pick him back up and run away.

Somewhere where no harm could be done.

Instead he slowly got back to his feet.

“Where are you going?” the boy asked.

“I'll get Mommy and the twins, didn't I just tell you that?”

“Can I come with you?”

Yes, he could. He would take him home and let him warm up. He'd give him a scarf and a warm drink and introduce him to his two siblings.

Instead he said, “You stay here.”

“Please don't leave me alone,” the child whispered and Geoff could feel his face scrunch up.

“Be a good boy. You can watch the lake,” he offered weakly. “You like to do that, right?”

The child nodded, his eyes trailing over the lake. “When will you be back?”

“Soon.”

“Do you promise?”

“I do.” Saying that felt a bit better. Saying that wasn't a lie because after the kid woke up again, he would be there. “Now be good.”

He broke down in tears when he left the tree behind, if only because his role had been played and he was freed. Falling to his knees in the snow and in the stardust, he sobbed and Gavin was there. Gavin was wrapping his arms around him.

“Why?” Geoff sobbed. “Why did you make me do this?”

“He needs to make the wish,” Gavin told him. _“_ _ I  _ need to make the wish. I'm sorry!”

And he shouldn't apologize for this. He really shouldn't but Geoff shook apart and when he concentrated enough, he could see the boy sitting at the tree.

Stardust all over him, because he had carried him and had left him there all alone.

“I want to go home,” he begged. “I don't.... Please just let me go! I never... never wanted this to happen!”

“I know,” Gavin breathed before squeezing him tightly. “You can wake up now. Wake up from this dream.”

 

He did.

Opening his eyes he stared up onto the ceiling in the morning light. Tears were still streaming down his face but he was in his bed, in his home, and there were steps coming closer, loud and hurried and he could barely turn his head before the door was thrown open.

It was Gavin, face flushed and scarf messily wrapped around his neck. He stood there and Geoff laid there and they were staring at each other, breathing heavily.

“Oh thank God,” Gavin finally mumbled and the spell was broken. He hurried closer and Geoff sat up and they met in a strong embrace.

“I thought he'd keep you,” Gavin said. “I thought you were gone, that you wouldn't be able to get out!”

Geoff wasn't able to answer. He had his face buried in a bony shoulder, crying like a little child as he grasped for a hold. He pulled Gavin into his lap to hold on tighter, feeling the soft fabric of the green scarf and cried even harder.

“I thought I had lost you...” Gavin whispered, and now he was also sobbing. “I thought... I thought you were lost but you are here. You are still here with me...”

“I am. I’m here.” Geoff choked. “And I won’t leave you again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue II Libra - Balance will be up tomorrow!


	10. Epilogue II - Libra; Balance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Wait...was it a dream? Ray, do you remember all that shit that happened or was I dreaming?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is Rachel's turn on an Epilogue - because she screamed at me for the last one, welp. Don't forget to listen to Event: Last Scene from the playlist while reading!

_Epilogue Part Two_

**Libra**

_Balance_

 

Ray jerked awake, half-tangled in the blankets. He laid there, frozen and breathing shallowly as he slowly registered his surroundings. He was home, in his bed. He was alone. It was morning. There were no stars.

Had it even been real?

He thought back and could see it so clearly. His own ghost, the roof right before he stepped off, Ryan pulling him closer as the world ended.

The Prince.

Michael cowering in a corner, throat crushed and air cut off.

Ray sat up and frantically freed himself from the covers before scrambling to his nightstand and grabbing his phone.

 

* * *

 

Michael woke in motion, arm thrown out to grab someone, stop them-

But...there was no one here.

He was alone in his bedroom, Lindsay out of town for the week. But his heart was still racing, he had seen the snow falling upwards and then…? How was he back home?

His cellphone buzzed and he leaned over to answer it. “Hello?”

“Michael?” came Ray’s voice hesitantly. “It is you?”

“Yeah, it’s me, Ray. Are you alright? Do you know what happened?”

There was a pause, then Ray quietly echoed, “What happened?”

Michael sat back, brow furrowed in confusion. “Wait...was it a dream? Ray, do you remember all that shit that happened or was I dreaming?”

His friend let out a shaky laugh. “I was just about to ask if I was going crazy. I wasn’t sure if it was real, but there’s no way we shared a freaky dream like that, right?”

“I don’t think so. We need to talk to the others and find out more.”

“Yeah...but Michael, before we do…”

“Yeah, Ray?”

“It’s good to hear your voice.”

 

* * *

 

Jack’s fingers rapidly tapped against his leg as he pressed Geoff’s name in his phone contacts for the eighth time, waiting as it rang six times before going to voicemail again.

Maybe he was just being paranoid. It had all been a dream, right? Or really, a nightmare. A world where they all had strange doppelgangers...that could never be real, could it?

Geoff still didn’t answer. Maybe everything was fine and he was just still asleep. Maybe he was making breakfast for himself and Gavin and was just away from his phone.

Jack dialed Ryan.

 

* * *

 

An aching shoulder brought Ryan out of his sleep. He groaned and reached with his other hand to massage it, muttering, “Finally got to sleep in and had a fucked up dream. Of course.”

His phone buzzing next to him made him groan again, and he checked to make sure it was something he could ignore. No such luck, as Jack had apparently called twice already. He answered with a grumpy “Hello?”

“Oh thank God. Are you alright? I can’t reach Geoff. Have you heard anything from the others?”

“Wait, wait, hold on. What are you talking about Jack? Did something happen?”

“Do...do you remember anything? From what just happened?”

“Uhh...I mean I had a freaky dream but I don’t remember anything else happening since last night?”

Ryan heard Jack sigh. “Was the dream about another Gavin and alternate versions of us?”

“Uh...yes...How did you know that?” He was not looking forward to the answer.

“Because if we had the same dream, it’s likely that the others had it too, and it was actually real, however messed up that sounds.”

Yup, Ryan definitely didn’t like that answer. “Nope. I’m going back to sleep.”

“Ryan! Call Ray and Michael and see if they’re alright. I’ll try Geoff again.”

“Alright, alright...Let me know when you talk to Geoff.”

“Sure.”

Jack hung up and Ryan looked down at his phone. He could still remember all of it. The Prince’s distraught and furious face, how Geoff was separated from them, how Ray shook as Ryan held him close so they wouldn’t be separated as well.

If it had been real...then he was starting to worry as well.

 

* * *

 

 

Geoff looked down at Gavin, who had fallen back asleep. The lad’s tear-streaked face was peaceful now, and Geoff was grateful that he didn’t seem to be having any nightmares. But the more he looked at him, the Prince’s scarf still around his neck, the more his heart ached. In other worlds, other timelines, he had killed this young man he loved like family. Gavin, who trusted him so much that even after all this he still easily fell asleep clinging to him.

What the hell was wrong with his other self? Why were the other Gavins doomed to the loop? Even after that “first” Gavin had spoken to him, he didn’t understand…

But he couldn’t change it now. Not when he had been made to set it into motion in the first place. All he could do was take care of his own Gavin, and the others as well.

Sighing, he reached for his phone, careful not to jostle his charge, and quietly swore when he saw he had a ton of missed calls and texts from the others. Jack had called the most, so it would make sense to start with him, and Geoff tapped in his number.

 

* * *

 

 

The group was settled in Geoff’s living room. Ray and Michael were curled up together on the couch with Ryan on Ray’s other side, and Jack sitting back in the armchair. Geoff and Gavin shared the loveseat, and Gavin was still lightly clinging to Geoff’s arm.

Jack was the first to speak. “So we all agree that what happened was real, right? Regardless of how fucked up it was, we all experienced the same thing, so despite how impossible it seems...it was real.”

“Yes,” murmured Michael as Ray nodded slowly beside him.

“Yeah,” muttered Ryan. “Though I really wish that wasn’t the case.”

“I think that goes for all of us, Ryan,” replied Geoff, absentmindedly stroking Gavin’s wild hair as the younger man remained quiet and played with the scarf still wrapped around his neck. “And yeah, Jack. It was real.”

“Agreed, then.” Now Jack turned to Gavin, a comforting smile doing its best to remain on his face. “I know you’re still really shaken up, but do you feel up to telling us what happened in the room with the Prince? Did...did you find out the final clue?”

Gavin didn’t say anything for a long moment, before blinking and looking down at the carpet. “Yes. I did.”

Geoff gently squeezed him. “Gav, you don’t have to talk about this yet if you don’t want to-”

“The King and his Jack did it. They poisoned the Prince because of his demon. And then they framed Michael because of his demon.” Gavin paused to swallow. “They did it because they thought the demons were...were a danger to the kingdom. They had raised me--th-the Prince themselves and they still thought that he would…”

Geoff hushed him when his voice wavered, hugging him tightly. Jack went pale, feeling sick even though he knew they had narrowed down the possible culprits before.

Michael stood up, ready to leave the room, and it had to hurt, to know that he had been killed unjustly, that he had suffered so much just to be a scapegoat. It was Ray who stopped him by gently grabbing onto his hand and pulling him back down onto to the couch, wrapping his arms so tightly around him as if he wanted to hide him while pressing their foreheads together.

Jack cleared his throat. “I...I see. For what it’s worth, Gavin, I’m sorry.”

The lad gave him a watery smile. “It wasn’t you, Jack. You’re not him, and neither is Geoff. But thank you.”

Jack smiled back as much as he could before turning to Geoff. “So what happened to you? The Prince separated us, what happened afterwards?”

Geoff hesitated, and he knew everyone could see it. They all stared at him expectedly, but how could he tell them? After learning that his other self, the King, had murdered Prince Gavin, _his own son,_ how would they feel if he told them that he was the one who set everything into motion in the first place? And not for just one reality, but for countless ones? How would his own Gavin react? Would he forgive him when Geoff would never be able to forgive himself? He didn’t want to find out. He didn’t want to burden them with the knowledge of even more other worlds and his part in them.

So he lied.

“I...I don’t really remember. I mean, at least I got back, right?”

The responses to that varied. Gavin nodded vigorously and curled further into Geoff’s side, sending a pang of love and sorrow to his heart. Michael frowned, but remained quiet, and Ray gazed at him understandingly, which he was grateful for. Ryan and Jack both raised their eyebrows at him, but didn’t push for now. He knew that at the very least Jack didn’t believe him, but he could deflect him again later if necessary.

After a few more moments that Geoff was sure Jack was using to see if Geoff would say anything else, the bearded man sighed. “Alright then. I guess...does anyone want to talk about what happened? Is everyone going to be alright?”

Surprisingly, Ray went first. “I guess, like...not to get all after-school special and shit, but whatever happened there made me glad that we live our lives here, you know? Thinking about how the...other me lost everything because of royal wars and demons...I’m really glad to be _here_ with you guys. Sorry for getting mushy.”

Michael nudged him gently. “Nah, man. I feel the same way. What our other selves went through was fucked up. I wish things had gone better for them.”

Ryan lightly tapped his fingers on his arm. “This might sound weird, but I wish I could have also seen my other self, just to ask him why he did all of it, the murderous deposition and the war and shit, if he just decided to surrender when King Geoff came back. What was the point?”

Ray shyly put his hand on Ryan’s, blushing when the older man’s tired blue eyes turned to him. “Well, I only know what my other self knew, but...I think he had seen what he had done and had a change of heart, and that was his way of trying to make up for it. Kind of extreme, I guess, but…”  
  
Ryan gave a sad half-smirk. “Yeah…”

Jack finally let his calm front crumble, putting his face in his hands and slumping forward. “God...just the idea that...a version of Geoff and I could even think about doing what they did for any reason... I would give anything to have stopped them.”

“Same here,” Geoff replied, figuring it was his turn. “What I wouldn’t give to kick my own ass.”

That left just Gavin, and as Geoff turned his attention back to him he saw the young man looking up at him in almost the same way the Prince had, a touch of grief dimming the stars in his eyes.

“Geoff…” he whispered, “I’m glad that...that you are mine, and I am yours.”

Geoff felt another pang in his heart and pulled Gavin into another full hug, tears gathering in his eyes. “I feel the same way, Buddy.”

Gavin started to sniffle again, and as he hugged him tighter, he could barely make out the others joining them through his watery eyes. But he could feel them, one by one wrapping their arms around them. First Michael’s growing muscle, then Ray’s skin and bones, Ryan’s light squeeze, and Jack’s gentle strength.

It felt right.

They were together and alive, like they should be.

 

* * *

 

A few hours later, when the Lads were settled in Gavin’s room, napping to relieve their physical and emotional fatigue, Geoff went outside to sit on the patio and waited for Jack. As he expected, a minute later, Jack followed him out, though Geoff wasn’t sure if he should have been surprised when Ryan also joined them.

Jack sat back, leaning on his arms, and when Geoff didn’t speak, said, “So what really happened, Geoff? We know you remember.”

Geoff sighed. “That obvious, huh?”

“Painfully,” Ryan answered, looking him in the eye.

Geoff sighed deeper. There was no way they were going to leave him alone about this, so he might as well prepare to tell all. And maybe… maybe it would help with his own inner demons as well.

It was the moment of Truth.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jenny:  
> Thank you guys so much for reading this slightly unusual story! I am really happy with how it turned out and so many of you went back and (re)visit the Royalty-verse! As always the comments were greatly appreciated and watching people guess and try to solve this little murder-case was a lot of fun!  
> Also a big thanks to Rachel, who actually managed to stand me through the entire work on this story!
> 
>  
> 
> Rachel:  
> Thank you all so much for reading and commenting! We love and appreciate you and hope this ending makes you feel satisfied!


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